MEMORIAL HISTORY 



OF 



AUGUSTA, GEORGIA 



o r 



FROM ITS SETTLEMENT IN 1735 TO THE CLOSE OF 
THE EIGHTEENTH CENTUR V BY 



CHARLES C. JONES, JR., LL.D. 



FROM THE CLOSE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY TO 
THE PRESENT TIME BY 



SALEM BUTCHER 



S^ RACUSE, N. Y. 

D. MASON & CO., PUBLISHERS 
1890 






H 



Wi?' 



PREFACE 



THIS is the first time that the history of that old and soHd city — Augusta, 
Ga. — has ever been written. It has been said that Americans have been 
too busy making history to write it, and the observation is true. The forma- 
tive period always precedes the preservative period ; first comes the pioneer, 
and long afterward the annalist. Romulus lived many centuries before Livy. 
Accordingly it is that American history has been late in writing. The annals 
of the States and of the general government have, it is true, been fairly well 
recorded — though this is largely due to the fact that the historian had the ar- 
chives of older nations, connected by discovery and conquest with the New 
World to resort to, but the story of American cities has been, until of recent 
years, almost a blank. Even the great metropolis of the country, New York, 
is better known, as to its early days, by the sweetly-flowing Knickerbocker his- 
tory of Washington Irving than by any actual and prosaic account. New Am- 
sterdam and its old Dutch burghers in bulbous hose and long stemmed pipe ; 
the choleric Governor Stuyvesant and his placid excellency Wouter Von Twil- 
ler, all rise before us at the very mention of the early history of the great 
American city, and yet all this is mere fancy, not fact. 

Municipal history was, until of late years, an untrodden field. The harvest 
was plenteous, but the laborers few, if any. Into this field the publishing house 
of D. Mason & Co. entered not so many years since, and of the many local his- 
tories since then published by them, it may well be doubted if any have ex- 
celled, or, perhaps equalled in scope, completeness and interest the work it is 
the office of this preface to introduce. 

Various causes have conspired somewhat to delay the production of this 
history, and yet there has been less a delay than a growth. In the additional 
time afforded them, the publishers have been enabled to amplify and enrich 
their theme. Opportunity has been afforded to explore new treasure-houses 
and thence extract fresh riches. The work has been amplified, adorned, and 
polished until it is confidently presented as a model municipal history. The 
whole career of an American city one hundred and fifty years old — older than 
the old French War, older than the rising of the Jacobites under Bonnie Prince 



History of Augusta. 



Charlie in the '45 ; older than Blackstone's famous Commentaries — has been 
thoroughly and carefully explored. 

In early days Georgia was but a strip of population on the west bank of 
the Savannah River, with one city, Savannah, at the southern, and another, 
Augusta, at its northern extremity. The growth of the commonwealth being 
for several generations in a northerly and northwesterly direction, made the 
upper metropolis a great center; and hence it is that for years the history of 
Augusta epitomizes that of the State. Here were held the great councils with 
the chieftains of the forest in the days of Indian supremacy ; here was the State 
capital during the next great Epoch, that of the Revolution ; and here the Con- 
stitution of the United States was ratified when American government. State 
and Federal, assumed permanent form. 

He who reads this history will, therefore, read more than the annals of a 
mere municipality. He can see, traced from its first foundation, the legal, edu- 
cational, financial, and industrial history of the State itself Rising from the 
perusal of the work, the reader will have acquired information for which he will 
in vain consult all the histories of Georgia that have heretofore been written. 
True, the magnificent work of Colonel C. C. Jones on the colonial period of the 
State, leaves little, if anything, to be desired as to that special epoch, but from 
that time forward the history of Georgia may be best seen in all matters non- 
political, in these pages. The history of the judicial establishment of the State 
has never been written as it is here written. To instance its completeness, it 
may be remarked that even so well informed a jurist as Mr. Justice Story in his 
great work on Equity Jurisprudence says: "In America Equity Jurisprudence 
had its origin at a far later period than the jurisdiction properly pertaining to 
the Courts of Common Law. In many of the colonies, during their connection 
with Great Britain, it had cither no existence at all, or a very imperfect and 
irregular administration." The reader interested in this particular subject, may 
therefore be surprised to find in this work a complete account of the Colonial 
Court of Chancery in Georgia, showing that Equity Jurisprudence existed here 
in full vigor years before the Revolution. The very details of the then prac- 
tice are set out and even the forms of precedents and items of the chancery fee 
bills are preserved and reproduced. 

In the all-important field of railroading will be found the history of two of 
the oldest railroads in the United States, the South Carolina and Georgia, 
centering in Augusta. The progress of the latter, in particular, is given year 
by year from the time the first meeting to organize a company was held, and 
in all the varying phases of railroad development, from the first passenger car, 
then called "coach," looking much like an old-fashioned stage coach, and pro- 
pelled by sails, down to the steel track, parlor car, and ponderous "Mogul" 
engine of the present day. 

The growth of manufactures is also traced from the time Whitney op- 



Preface. 5 

erated his first cotton-gin on a mill pond near the city to the present huge 
factories which line a canal inferior only in length to the great Erie Canal. In 
connection with the rise of the cotton industry is told the story of the old in- 
digo field and tobacco plantations. 

In the educational world the reader begins with an ancient institution of 
learning, only excelled in its antiquity by Yale and Harvard; and is thence 
brought up to the systems of the present day. Statistics never before gathered 
and grouped together on this subject in Georgia are to be found in this work. 

The physician, the divine, the banker, will find the history of medicine, 
religion, and finance in this city exhaustively treated. Particularly in the latter 
field will the work be found of more than local interest, since the theme has 
broadened into a sketch of banking in Georgia from the earliest days. 

The history proper of the city as a municipal organization, has, of course, 
received special attention. The original limits of the city are for the first time 
definitely located and described, and from that day up the extension of the 
corporate limits is carefully and accurately traced. Biographical sketches of 
the chief magistrates of the city from the earliest days are given, as also a com- 
plete list of their names and terms of office. Beside these sketches there are 
also numerous biographies of eminent judges, lawyers, physicians, divines, 
bankers, and citizens generally of the past. Still furtlier there are sketches of 
many of the living leaders of the city, this part of the work being embellished 
with steel engravings of the highest order of artistic elegance. 

In one word, this work is, as we have stated, a model municipal history. 
It has been prepared with care, diligence, research and skill, and while valuable 
now, will, as the years go on, become a priceless repository of information on 
the topics of which it treats. All the first portion of the work, up to the begin- 
ning of the municipal history proper, is from the pen of Colonel C. C. Jones, jr., 
a distinguished citizen of Augusta, author of many elaborate and valuable 
works on Georgia history, and beyond all question, the leading antiquarian and 
archaeologist of the State, if not indeed of the entire South, or of this country. 
The residue of the work is from the pen of Salem Dutcher, esq., a member of 
the Augusta bar. The biographical sketches are by various hands. 

The mechanical execution of the volume speaks for itself The skill of the 
typographer and binder has been successfully laid under tribute, and with a 
just pride in their work in all its parts, this History of Augusta is confidently 
submitted to the popular judgment by 

The Publishers. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Physical and Social Characteristics, Customs, Manufactures, Occupations and Monuments 

of the Georgia Tribe of Indians. 17 

CHAPTER n. 

Savannah Town — Settlement of Augusta — Earliest Descriptions of the Place — A Trad- 
ing Post — Names of the First Traders 24 

CHAPTER in. 

General Oglethorpe's Visit to Augusta — His Conference with the Creeks at Coweta 
Town — Colonel Stephens's Account of the Progress of the Plantation — Oglethorpe's 
Fairness in Dealing with the Indians — Introduction of Slave Labor — Rev. Jonathan 
Copp — Distribution of Presents for the Indians — Fort at Augusta — Early Legisla- 
tion — Governor Reynolds's "Representation" — Parishes Established — Represen- 
tation and Petition from Augusta 31 

CHAPTER IV. 

Condition of the Colony of Georgia in 1760 — Congress at Augusta in November, 1763 — 
Treaty with the Indians then Solemnized — Instructions to Indian Traders — Strength 
of Adjacent Indian Nations in 1768 — Augusta's Representation in the Provincial 
Congress — Congress at Augusta in June, 1773 — The Ceded Lands — Adjustment 
of the Claims of the Indian Traders — Trouble with the Indians — Silver Bluff 43 

CHAPTER V. 

Bartram's Description of Augusta in 1773 — Convention of 1774 — Protest from the 
Parish of Saint Paul — Division of Sentiment — Conduct of Governor Wright — Dr. 
Lyman Hall — Action of St. John's Parish — Progress of the Revolution 56 

CHAPTER VI. 

Revolutionary Movements in Savannah — Thomas Brown Tarred and Feathered in Au- 
gusta — Provincial Congress of July 4, 1775 — Articles of Association — Organization 
of the Militia and of the Courts — Independence of Georgia Proclaimed — Military 
Operations 65 



History of Augusta. 



CHAPTER VH. 

Colonel Campbell's Advance upon and Capture of Augusta — Republican Operations in 

Upper Georgia — Battle of Kettle Creek — Augusta Evacuated by the King's Forces, 72 

CHAPTER VHI. 

Military Operations — Affair near Fulsom's Fort — Augusta Designated as the Seat of 
Government — An Oligarchical Form of Government Inagurated — Political History 
of the Period Communication to General Lincoln — Governor Wright's Report on 
the Situation 81 

CHAPTER IX. 

Posture of Affairs in the Fall of 1779 — Legislation of the Commons House of Assembly 

— Proclamation of Governor Wereat, Governor Walton, General Mcintosh and Mr. 
Glascock — Political Affairs — Movements of the Executive Council — Unseemly 
Dissentions^ — Reorganization of the State Government at Augusta. . . 90 

CHAPTER X. . 

Augusta Evacuated by Williamson, and Occupied by Brown and Grierson — Barbarous 
Cruelties Perpetrated by Them — Colonel Clarke's Attempt to Retake Augusta — 
Narrative of the Incidents Connected with the Affair — Governor Wright's Dispatches 

— Sad Plight of the Revolutionists — Colonel Brown loi 

CHAPTER XI. 

Colonel Williamson Invests Augusta — Arrival of Colonel Clarke — Pickens and Lee Or- 
dered to Assist in the Reduction of Augusta — Capture of Fort Galpin — The Siege 
and Capitulation of Augusta — Lieutenant-Colonel James Jackson Assigned to the 
Command — Burnet's Rascality — Governor Wright Calls Lustily for Aid iii 

CHAPTER XII. 

Military Operations Culminating in the Surrender of Savannah — Plot to Murder Colonel 
Jackson — Celebration in Augusta upon the Acknowledgment of the Independence of 
the United States — Charge of Chief Justice Walton — Early Legislation Aftecting 
Augusta — The City of Augusta Incorporated in 1798 — Trustees, Intendants, and 
Mayors of Augusta 1 27 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Legislative Proceedings — Newspapers — Ratification in Augusta by the State of Georgia, 
of the Federal Constitution — Constitutional Convention of 1789 — Georgia Divided 
into Congressional Districts — President Washington's Visit to Augusta — Military 
Conven'ion of Augusta, 1793 137 



Contents. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Cultivation of the Tobacco Plant in Georgia — Rapid Improvement in the Trade and 
Prosperity of Augusta — Introduction of Cotton — Letter of Mr. Joseph Eve — Will- 
iam Longstreet and His Steamboat — Population of Richmond County upon the 
Close of the Last Century — Sibbald's Description of Augusta in 1799 — Concluding 
Remarks '44 

CHAPTER XV. 

Original Plan of the City — The Old Town — Limits Enlarged in 1780 — Government by 
Commissioners — Augusta's Loyal Element — The Captured Cannon — Augusta the 
State Capital — Trustees of Augusta — Limits Enlarged in 1786 — Charter of 1789 

— Popular Discontent— Charter Withdrawn — The Yazoo Freshet M9 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Augusta Incorporated —Charter of 1798 — Thomas Gumming, First Intendant — City 
Limits — Rise of the Cotton Interest — Whitney and His Gin — Price Current of 1 802 

— Intendant Murray— Intendant Hobby — Intendant Flournoy — Intendant Catlett 

— Assize of Bread — The Steamboat of 1808 — Intendant Hutchinson— Intendants 
Walker and Jones— Governor Matthews — Beards President Adams — Intendant 
Leigh — Panic of 18 14 — Intendant Called Mayor — Mayor Freeman Walker Be- 
comes United States Senator — Mayor Ware Becomes United States Senator — 
Mayors Reid and' Holt— La Fayette's Visit — Mayor Hale— Rise of the Railway 
System — Mayors Phinizy, Hook and Dye — The Algerine Law— Augusta Canal — 
Mexican War — Mayor Ford '6' 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Mayors Garvin, Miller and Dearing — Central Railroad Comes in — Mayor Conley — 
Mayor Blodgett — Augusta Water-works — The War Opens — Capture of Augusta 
Arsenal — Georgia's Wonderful Prosperity in i860— First Regiment — Augusta's 
Volunteers — Her Dead — Confederate Monuments — Ladies' Memorial Association 

— The Salt Famine — Speculation — Gun-powder Works — Fury and Suffering of 
the War — Confederate Money — Lee's Surrender — Riot of 1865 — Mayor May — 
Military Rule — Mayor Gardiner— Military Mayor— Reconstruction — Mayor Rus- 
sell—Mayor Allen — Mayor Estes — Enlargement of the Canal — Mayor Meyer - 
Mayor May — Vast Extension of Corporate Limits — Freshet of 1888 — Exposition 

— Augusta's Double Tax — Retrospect — Proud Record of a Century and a Half. . 175 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Bench and Bar — Judicial Establishment of Georgia under the Trustees - Judicature 
Court — The Rum Law — Law Against Fine Clothes — Free Labor Law — Tenure 
by Tail Mail — Surrender of the Charter — Judicial Establishment under the King's 
Colonial Government -The Royal Governor, the Chancellor -Court of Chancery 
Fee Bill — " Thirteen Chancellors " '92 



lo History of Augusta. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Bench and Bar Continued — Common Law Courts — The Chief Justice of Georgia — 
Grover, Simpson and Stokes, Chief Justices — Commission — Fees — The General 
Court — Origin of Superior Court — Judges — Attorney-General — Provost-Marshal 
— Clerk of the Crown — Court of Ordinary — Court of Conscience — Justices of the 
Peace — Early J. P.'s in Augusta — Oyer and Terminer — Court of Admiralty — Ap- 
peals — Court of Errors — Writ of Error — Appeal lo the King — The Colonial Bar 

— Pomp, Form and Circumstances — Robes, Seals and Precedence 200 

CHAPTER XX. 

Bench and Bar Continued — The Judicial Establishment of 1776 — Constitution of 1777 

— The Superior Court — Judiciary Act of 1778 — Reopening of the Courts in 1782 — 
Judiciary Act of 1789 — Two Circuits — Chief Justice Glen — Judge Few — Chief 
Justices Glen, Stephens and Wereat — Chief Justice George Walton — Chief Justice 
Osborne — Richmond Superior Court in 1787 — Benefit of Clergy — Branding and 

the Pillory — Grand Jury Presentments — Chief Justice Pendleton 213 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Bench and Bar Continued — Augusta's Early Bar — Abraham Baldwin — Governor John 
Milledge — Governor Telfair — William H. Crawford — Robert Watkins — T. P. and 
P. J. Carnes — Silken Robes — Robert Raymond Reid — Pathos and Humor — His 
Bar Dinner — Freeman Walker^ John P. King — Nicholas Ware — John Forsyth. . 224 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Bench and Bar Concluded— Eminent Lawyers of Augusta Continued — Richard Henry 
Wilde — " My Life is Like the Summer Rose" — George W. Crawford — Charles J. 
Jenkins — Ebenezer Starnes — Andrew J. Miller — William T. Gould — Henry H. 
Gumming — Governor William Schley — Judge John Shly — Judge Holt — Herschel 
V. Johnson — Court Roll of Judges from 1776 — Solicitors-General from 1796 — City 
Court of Augusta — Origin and History — Court Roll 237 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Medical Profession — Augusta Physicians of 1760-1785 — First Sanitation Act — 
Medical Association of 1808 — Medical Society of Augusta Incorporated in 1822 — 
Medical Academy of Georgia — Bachelor of Medicine Degree — State Board of 
Physicians — Medical Institute of Georgia — Doctor of Medicine Degree —The 
Medical College Organized — Roll of Graduates — Yellow Fever of 1839 — Cele- 
brated Report Thereon — Non-contagiousness Demonstrated 251 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Medical Profession Concluded — The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1854 — Portability 
of Fever Germ — Dr. Campbell's Theory of Quarantine — Board of Health — The 
Sewer System — Decrease in Death Rate — Southern Medical and Surgical 
Journal — Eminent Physicians — Milton Antony — Fendall — Cunningham — Wat- 
kins — Carter — Garvin — Newton — Dugas — Ford — Eve — Augusta's Present 
Faculty 262 



Contents. h 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The Press — The Augusta C/irom'cle — Established in 1785 — Its Editors for a Century — 
Smith (1785) — Driscoll (1807) — Bevan (1821) — A Semi-Weekly— Harmon (1822) 

— A Tn-Weekly — Hobby (1824) — Pemberton (1825) — Jones (1837) — A Daily — 
Colonel James M. Smythe (1846) — Dr. Jones (1847J — Morse (1861) — General A. 
R. Wright and Hon. Patrick Walsh (i866j — H. Gregg Wright (1877) — James R. 
Randall (1883) — Pleasant A. Stovall (1887) — The Chronicle of 1790 — Its Appear- 
ance, News, Advertisements, Etc. — Chronicles Centennial — Honorable Record — 
The Augusta Herald — The Cotisiitiitionalist — Colonel Gardner — Southern Field 
and Fireside — State's Rights Sentinal — The Mirror — The Republic — The 
Evening News — The Progress — The Free Press — The Baiiner of the South — 
The Pacificator — The Souther 7i Medical and Surgical Joicrnal — Veteran News- 
paper Attaches 278 

CHAPTER XXVL 

Social, Secret, Literary and Benevolent Societies — The Drama — Commercial Club — 
St. Valentine Club — Scheutzen — Gun Club — Irish Organizations — Jockey Club — 
Tournaments — Bicycle Club — Athletic Association — Poultry and Pet Stock Asso- 
ciations — Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — Origin and Good Work 

— Widow's Home — Women's Christian Temperance Union — Ministerial Associa- 
tion — Orphan Asylum — Library — Sheltering Arms — Hayne Circle — Confederate 
Survivors — Drummers — Grand Army of the Republic — Catholic Knights — Masons 

— Odd Fellows — Knights of Pythias — Good Templars — Miscellaneous Organiza- 
tions — Colored Organizations 291 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Educational — Early Educational System of Georgia — The University — The Academy 

— The Poor School — Early Appropriations — School Population — Academies and 
Schools of 1828 — Course of Instruction — The Educational Commission of 1836 — 
Common School System of 1837 — School Fund from 1823 to 1838 — Common 
School System Abolished in 1840 — Poor School Fund of 1843 --Large Increase of 
Fund in 1852 and 1858 — The Perfected Poor School System —Outbreak of War 
Prevents Fair Trial — The Academies — Their Number and Curious Names — "The 
Turn Out" — Codification of the Laws in i860 — Educational Benefactions in Au- 
gusta — Old Schools — The Houghton Institute — Augusta Free School — Richmond 
Academy — Educational Clauses in State Constitutions of 1861 and 1865 — Educa- 
tion During the War — Constitutional Provisions of 1868 — System of 1870 — The 
Richmond County System 301 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Banks and Banking — Two Eras, 18 10 to 1865, and 1865 to Date — The Old Bank of 
Augusta — Its Incorporators — Voting on a Sliding Scale — Old Bank Rules — Death 
to Counterfeit its Notes — Germs of Bank Examinations — The Old Bank's Good 
Showings — A Surplus Fund a Novelty — Balance Sheet of 1835 — List of Stock- 
holders — Other Old Banks — First Savings Bank in 1827 — Its Expenses $4.55 per 



12 History of Augusta. 



Annum — The Old Augusta Savings Institution — Augusta Insurance and Banking 
Company — Almost Ruined by the Fire of 1829 — President Bennoch's Tart Report 
to the Governor — Report of 1833 — List of Stockholders — Merchants' and Planters' 
Bank — Its Failure in 1833 — Legislative Report Thereon — The Mechanics' Bank 

— Report of 1833 — List of Stockholders — The Union Bank — The City Bank — 
The Georgia Railroad Given Banking Franchise — Its Capital Stock and Dividends 
from 1836 to 1847 — Its Banking Business from 1847 ta 1864 — Discounts, Deposits 
and Circulation for. Same Period — Early Banking — Banking at Will — Prohibition 
of Change Bills — Suppression of Private Banks — Severe Penalties — No Notes 
under Five Dollars — Forfeiture of Charter on Suspension of Specie Payments — Free 
Banking Law of 1838 — Analagous to National Bank Act — Land and Negroes a 
Basis of Issue — Panic of (837— Panic of 1857 — "The War of the Banks" — 
Banking Capital in 1835, in 1838, in i860 — Dividends, 1829 to 1838 — Great Pros- 
perity Just Before the War — Increase of $133,000,000 in Two Years — Wealth of 
Richmond County in i860 — Outside of Slaves $20,000,000 — War Bonds, Specie 
Suspension — The Banks Exhaust Themselves Helping the Confederacy — Banking 
During the War — Demise of the Old Banks — Banks Since the War — National 
Bank — National Exchange Bank — The State Banks — Renewal of Banking Fran- 
chise to the Georgia Railroad — Dividends from 1836 to 1861, under First Franchise 

— Dividends, 1861 to 1881 — The Commercial Bank — The Augusta Savings Insti- 
tution — Planters' Loan and Savings Bank — Banks Chartered Since the War, but 
not Organized — City Loan Association and Savings Bank — Mechanics' Savings 
Bank — City Loan and Savings Bank — Manufacturers' Bank — Citizens' Bank — 
City Bank — Savings Bank of Augusta — Name Changed to Bank of Augusta — 

Its Failure 328 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Churches — -Early Religious Discrimination in Georgia — Establishment of Religious 
Freedom — The Colony Divided into Parishes — Church of England Established — 
Parish of St. Paul — Augusta's First Clergyman — Rectors of St. Paul's Church — 
Worshipers Required to Carry Fire-arms to Church — St. Paul's Burned in the Revo- 
lution — A New Church Built — The Protestant Episcopal Society Incorporated — 
St. Paul's Rebuilt — St. Paul's Ancient Tombs— Church of the Atonement — The 
Presbyterian Churches — History of the First Presbyterian Church — Originally 
Called Christ Church — Incorporated in 1808 — List of Pastors — The Telfair Build- 
ing — A Model Sunday School- - Changes in Charter — The Pew Law — Who is a 
Worshiper — Baptist Churches — The Old Kioka Church — Daniel Marshall's Grave 

— First Baptist Church Incorporated in 1809 — Reincorporated in 1817 — Building 
Completed in 1819 — List of Pastors — Second Baptist Church Incorporated in i860 

— The Baptist Convention — Methodist Church — Early Difficulties — "The Weep- 
ing Prophet " — St. John's Established in iSoi — Rev. John Garvin, its First Pastor — 
His Distinguished Successors — St. James' Built in 1855 — Other Methodist Churches 

— Early Catholics — Catholic Society Incorporated in 1811 — The First Church — 
Diocese of Georgia Created in 1850 — List of Bishops — St. Mary's Convent Estab- 
lished in 1833 — Consecration of St. Patrick's Chnrch in 1862 — Father Duggan and 
Other Pastors — Sacred Heart Church Built in 1874 — Sacred Heart Academy in 1876 

— The Franciscan Sisters — The Christian Church — The Lutheran Church — The 
Synagogue — The Unitarian Society — Colored Churches — Quaint Observances — 
Young Men's Christian Association — Ministerial Association — Liberal Religious 
Sentiment 367 



Contents. U 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Manufactures — Eli Whitney and His Cotton Gin — Cotton Forthwith Becomes a Staple 
The Inventor's Troubles — Law Suits. Infringements and Hostile Legislation — Pro- 
test Against Extension of the Patent — Whitney's Later Invention — His Death in 
1825 — Rapid Increase in Cotton Exports— Price Current in 1802 — The Embargo 
Blunder — British Cotton — Heavy Customs Duties — Georgia Long Staple — Total 
Cotton Export in 1810— A Cotton Factory Chartered in 1798 — Europe and the 
North Manufacture, while the South only Produces — Deterrent Causes - Another 
Factory Chartered in 1810 — The Pioneer Southern Mill — Judge Shly's Factory — 
"The Live Spindle "—Bagging and Yarn the First Products— " The Dead Spindle" 

— Osnaburgs — The Mill Removed to Richmond County and Named Bellville — 
"Georgia Plains "—Checks and Denims Made-- Bellville Factory Twice Burned — 
Impetus's Given Southern Manufactures — Richmond Factory - Profuse and Omni- 
present Water Power of Richmond County --Early Factories, Mills and Gms — 
McBean Factory— The Georgia Silk Manufacturing Company— The Augusta Sugar 
Manufacturing Company -The Savannah River Utilized- Augusta Canal Projected 

— Early History of this Great Work — The Original Ordinance— The Origmal 
Route Named -Ratifying Act of the Legislature - How the Money was Raised - 
The Engineer's Report- Anti-Canal Litigation - The Canal Wins - The Enlarge- 
ment in 1872-5- Dimensions and Cost - Relative Cotton Manufacturing Advant- 
ages of North and South — Expert Testimony -The Augusta Manufacturmg Com- 
pany -The McBean Factory Charter -The Augusta Factory -Its Phenomenal 
Success- The Enterprise Factory — The Sibley Manufacturing Company — The 
John P King Manufacturing Company -The Riverside Mills -The Warwick Mills 
The Algernon Mills -The Globe Mills — Work of the Augusta Factory from 1873 
to 1878 — The Adjacent South Carolina Mills at Graniteville and Vancluse — The 
Southern and Western Manufacturers Association - The Lock Out of 1886- Other 
Manufacturing Interests- Georgia Chemical Works -The Guano Interests -The 
Augusta Ice Company of 1832-The Jackson Street Ice Company of 1837-The 
Ice Factory of 1864-The Augusta Ice Company-The Polar Ice Company -The 
Augusta Machine Works -Pendleton Machine Works- Augusta Flounng Mills - 
Excelsior Flouring Mills -The Lumber Interest -Brick Yards - Augusta as a 
Cotton Town -The Best Inland Center in the United States -Cotton Futures.. . . 3«7 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Transportation -Early Epoch -Pack Animals- Peltry Trade- Indigo -Tobacco- 
Inspection System -Tobacco Gives Way to Cotton -Wagon Trade-" The Georgie 
Cracker "-Chief Justice Stokes's Account- Wagon Yards -The River Trade- 
Hammond's Sketch of the Savannah -Neglect of this Great Waterway - Disputes 
as to Boundary -South Carolina vs. Georgia in the Continental Congress- A Fed- 
eral Court Ordered -Convention of Beaufort -First Improvement Act m 1786- 
The Savannah Navigation Company Incorporated in 1799 -Concert with South 
Carolina Solicited -Navigation Act of 1802, 1809 and 1812 - Another Appeal for 
South Carolina Co-operation -River Commissioners- Appropriation oi $30,000 m 
1818 -The River Improved -South Carolina Co-operation - The Convention of 
182V2; -Congressional Assent not Obtained - Co-operation Fails -Operations 
from 1815 to ,826.-South Carolina Prefers to Relv on Railroad Transportation- 



14 History of Augusta. 



Collapse of the Inter-State Convention — Fisheries Acts — Sketch of South Carolina 
Legislation on Savannah River — Federal Appropriation from 1826 to 1838 — The 
Anti-Internal Improvement School of Politics — The Savannah Valley Convention — 
Its History, Personnel and Action — The Augusta Chronicle Suggests such a Con- 
vention — Memorial to Congress — Hammond's Topographical Sketch — A Trip 
Down the River — Picturesque Scenes — Danger Points on the River — Regulations 
of the Pole Boat Trade — The Steamboat — William Longstreet, its Inventor — The 
First Crude Model — Steamboat Act of 1814 — The Steamboat Company of Georgia 
Chartered in 181 7 — History of the Company — Complaint of its Monopoly — South 
Carolina Competition — Legislative Investigation and Report — Hamburg vs. Au- 
gusta — The Steamboat Company Given Canal and Railroad Franchises in 1833 — 
Charter Extended in 1834 — The Iron Steamboat Company — The Savannah and 
Augusta Steamboat Company — Union Steamboat Company — Augusta, Petersburg 
and Savannah Steam and Pole Boat Navigation Company — Augusta Steamboat 
Company of 1887 — Phases of Steamboat Navigation Development — Roll Call of 
Steamboats for Seventy Years — List of Casualities — Burnt, Blown Up and Sunk. . 436 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Page 

Baker, Alfred Part i, facing 358 

Calvin, Hon. Martin V Part i, facing 318 

Campbell, Henry Fraser. . .Part 2, facing 4 

Estes, Charles Part i, facing 414 

Jones, Chas. C, Jr., LL.D.Part i, facing 148 
King, John P Part i, facing 234 



Page 

McCoy, William E Part i, facing 422 

Mitchell, Robert M Part i, facing 506 

Phinizy, Charles H Part i, facing 500 

Sibley. Josiah Part 2. facing 26 

Thompson, Jesse Part i, facing 430 

Walsh, Hon. Patrick Part i, facing 278 



Young, William B Part 2, facing Page 40 



BIOGRAPHIES 



PART II. 



Page 



Baker, Alfred 

Calvin, Hon. Martin V 

Campbell, Henry Fraser 

Estes, Charles 

Jones, Charles C, Jr., LL.D 19 

King, John P 3^ 

Young, William B Page 40 



3 
16 

4 
I 



Page 

McCoy, William E 24 

Mitchell, Robert M 46 

Phinizy, Charles H 25 

Sibley, Josiah 26 

Thompson, Jesse 29 

Walsh, Hon. Patrick 42 



MEMORIAL HISTORY 



OF 



AUGUSTA, GEORGIA, 



PART I. 



CHAPTER T. 

Physical and Social Characteristics, Customs. Manufactures, Occupations and Monuments 
ol the Georgia.Tribes of Indians. 

BEFORE entering upon our contemplated sketch of the .settlement and 
early history of Augusta, a brief account of the physical and social char- 
acteristics, the customs, manufactures, monuments and occupations of the In- 
dians resident in this region at the time of the advent of the European, may 
be deemed neither inappropriate nor uninteresting. 

When Oglethorpe planted the colony of Georgia at Yamacraw Bluff, he 
was welcomed by a small tribe of Indians, who had there fixed their homes, 
led by a venerable and noted chief, Tomo-chi-chi by name. The ceded lands 
lying between the Savannah and the Alatamaha Rivers and extending from 
their head waters indefinitely toward the west, were then occupied by an Ab- 
original population the principal settlements of which were established in the 
vicinity of rivers, in rich valleys, and upon the sea islands. The middle and 
lower portions of this and the adjacent territory were claimed and occupied 
by the Muskhogees or Creeks, consisting of many tribes, and associated to- 
gether in a strong confederacy. The lands possessed by the Muskhogees com- 
prehended the seats of the Seminoles in Florida, and were bounded on the 
west by Mobile River and by the ridge which separates the waters of the 
Tombigbee from those of the Alabama, on the north by the Cherokee coun- 
try, on the north and east by the Savannah River, and otherwise by the At- 
lantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The Hitchittees, residing on the Flint 

3 



i8 History of Augusta. 



and Cliattahoochee Rivers, althouL^h originally a distinct people, spoke the 
Muskhogee dialect and formed a component tribe of the Creek confederation. 
The Seminoles or Isty Seminoles (wild men) were pure Muskhogees, and re- 
ceived that name because they subsisted chiefly by hunting and were little 
giv^en to agricultural pursuits. They inhabited the peninsula of Florida. Both 
the. Muskhogees and the Hitchittees claimed to be autochthonous; the former 
asserting that their nation, in the beginning, issued out of a cave near the Ala- 
bama River, and the latter boasting that their ancestors had fallen from the 
sky. The Uchees and the Natchez yielded obedience to the Muskhogee con- 
federacy. Of the former, the original seats are supposed to have been east of 
the Coosa. They declared themselves to be the most ancient inhabitants of 
the territory ; and it has been suggested that they were the people called Ap- 
palaches by the historians of De Soto's expedition. Early in the eighteenth 
century they dwelt upon the western bank of the Savannah River; and, as 
late as 1736, possessed the country above and below the town of Augusta. 
The name of a creek in Columbia county perpetuates their memory to the 
present day, and reminds us of their former occupancy of this region. For- 
saking their old habitat on the left bank of the Mississippi, and journeying 
eastward, the Natchez associated themselves with the Creeks not many years 
prior to the advent of Oglethorpe. The division into Upper, Middle, and 
Lower Creeks was wholly artificial, and was adopted by the English for geo- 
graphical purposes. Cussetah, Cowetah, Tukawbatchie and Oscoochee may 
be mentioned among the principal towns of the Creeks. The Muskhogee, the 
Hitchittee, the Uchee, the Natchez, and the Alibamon or Coosada, were the 
languages generally spoken by the various tribes composing the Creek confed- 
eracy. Besides the nations we have enumerated as yielding obedience to. and 
forming part of the Muskhogee confederation, remnants of the Cawittas, Tale- 
poosas, Coosas, Apalachias, Conshacs or Coosades, Oakmulgis, Oconis, Ok- 
choys, Kiokees, Alibamons, Weetumkas, Pakanas, Taensas, Chachsihoomas 
and Abekas should not be forgotten. 

North of Muskhogees dwelt the Cherokees, a brave and comely race. They 
inhabited thp hilly and mountainous parts of the country, and exercised do- 
minion even beyond the Tennessee River where they were confronted by the 
Shawnees. The entire region permeated by the sources of the Coosa, the 
Chattahooche, the Savannah, the Santee and the Yadkin, was held by them. 
Between the Cherokees and the Muskhogees the division line followed Broad 
River, and, generally, the thirt}'- fourth parallel of north latitude. 

Of the number of red men dwelling, at the date of English colonization, 
within the geographical limits accorded to the modern State of Georgia, we 
may not speak with certainty. No census was 'taken, and all estimates then 
formed were mere approximations. We question whether the total popula- 
tion e.xceeded fifty thousand. These Southern tribes, at the period of our first 



The Indian Occupation. 19 



acquaintance with them, were well organized, occupied permanent homes, and 
were large y engaged in the cultivation of maize, beans, pumpkins, melons, and 
fruits of several sorts. Of native nuts they were fond. From them was ex- 
tracted an oil, "clear as butter, and of a good taste," says the gentleman of 
Elvas. V^'ith the bow and arrow, the blowgun. the spear, and the club, were 
wild animals and birds killed for food. Fishes were captured with nets 'and 
harpoons, in wears, and by other ingenuous mechanical contrivances. 

Their plantations were located in rich valleys where a generous soil yielded, 
with least labor, the most remunerative harvest — upon islands and headlands, 
and in the vicinity of streams where the products of the fields were readily 
supplemented by the fishes of neighboring waters and the game of adjacent 
forests. The grooved stone ax was employed in girdling trees. The circula- 
tion being thus interrupted, the trees perished, and were then either consumed 
by fire, or suffered to fall down and rot piecemeal. 

While to tribes, nations, and confederacies were accorded recognized terri- 
torial limits, and while in such public domain, with its rivers, lakes and woods, 
each member exercised equal rights for the purposes of travel, hunting and 
fishing, a special or temporary ownership was admitted in lands cleared and 
cultivated by individual labor. If at first denuded of its forest by the united 
efforts of the villagers, the town plantation was subsequently parceled out 
among the adult inhabitants, who were thereafter entitled to reap the fruits of 
their personal industry. Each year, at an appointed season, under the super- 
intendence of overseers, the inhabitants of the village prepared the ground 
and sowed the seed. Upon the ingathering of the harvest, each Indian depos- 
ited in his crib the yield of his particular lot; contributing, however, a certain 
portion to the public granary, or King's storehouse. These public granaries 
served also as depositories for dried fishes, alligators, dogs, deer, bear and other 
jerked meats. From them were the chiefs supplied, and their contents were 
utilized in entertainment of strangers, for the relief of members of the commu- 
nity who might be overtaken by want, and in furnishing rations to warriors 
when setting out upon an expedition. 

Besides his lot in the general plantation, each villager cultivated a garden 
spot near his habitation, where maize, melons, beans and other vegetables were 
produced. Various were the ceremonies and festivals observed by these prim- 
itive peoples when planting and harvesting the maize, and very general was 
its adoption as an article of food. Perhaps nothing tended more surely to de- 
velop and consolidate the Southern tribes, and to render permanent their habi- 
tations, than the extensive cultivation of this important American plant. 

Their towns were usually small, and circular in outline. Not infrequently 
they were defended by stockades, enclosing spaces varying from two to fifty 
acres. The central position in the village was occupied by the dwelling of the 
mico, chief, or king. Around it. in the order of rank, were congregated the 



20 History of Augusta. 



houses of the head men. The cabins of the common people were ciicuh^r or 
parallelogrammic in plan. Their walls were made of upright poles, and their 
roofs were covered with swamp-cane, palmetto leaves, moss, or earth. Each 
village had its council-house where public deliberations were held. Some 
times, as at Talomcco, there was a mausoleum wherein were preserved the 
skeletons of distinguished kings and priests. Occasionally, too, was erected 
an armory for the conservation of weapons and treasures. If located at a re- 
move from river, lake, or natural spring, an artificial pond was excavated to 
furnish the town with the requisite supply of fresh water. 

Ephemeral in their character, these primitive structures were liable to 
early decay, and had to be constantly renewed. At certain seasons these vil- 
lages were almost deserted of their inhabitants, who repaired in large numbers 
to favorite streams and to the coast to fish and hunt. 

At the period of our earliest acquaintance w'ith' them, these people were 
dix'idcd into fomilics, tribes, and confederacies. Over the confederacy or na- 
tion ruled a king, counseled and supported by chiefs of component tribes. 
The office was elective, and the advancement to the highest gratle was usually 
accorded to him most worthy of the responsible position. As chief magistrate, 
he presided over the grand council, commanded the entire labor and obedi- 
ence of his subjects, directed public afitairs both civil and military, and, with 
powers well nigh despotic, exercised the functions of king, judge, adviser, 
master, and leader. To subordinate chiefs was conceded rank according to 
their age, wisdom, valor, and the strength of their following. Head warriors, 
high priests, and conjurers were important personages in this primitive soci- 
ety. The latter often united the callings of priest, physician, and fortune teller. 
Presumed to be in constant coniniunication with spirits both good and evil, 
addicted to numerous and extraxagant incantations, possessing charms myste- 
rious, and to the common mind inexplicable, indulging in prolonged and vio- 
lent contortions while practicing tlieir deceptions, exhibiting no inconsiderable 
knowledge of simples, philters antl medicinal herbs, administering fumigations, 
inhalations, baths, blood-lettings, scarifications, local applications and emetics, 
these medicine men imposed largeh' upon the credulitx- of the community, 
and exacted liberal rewards from tlieir patients, who, in pain and superstition, 
regarded the ravings of these quacks as the utterances of a divine tongue, be- 
held the behavior of these cunning impostors with awe, and submitted without 
hesitation to the remedies they prescribed. Beyond doubt, however, these 
medicine men excelled in the treatment of many distempers, and remarkable 
were the cures which they effected. 

Both the Muskhogees and the Cherokees were, at the time of our first 
acquaintance with them, and had been for a long time, engaged in the erection 
of tumuli of earth, stone, and shells. Some of no mean dimensions were con- 
structed within the historic period, while most of them have withstood the dis- 



The Indian Occupation. 21 

integrating influences of many centuries. Animal, bird-shaped, and em- 
blematic structures are rarely seen. Space does not permit us to attempt a 
classification or description of these prominent indications of early occupancy 
and primitive labor, and yet we cannot refrain from alluding to the existence 
of truncated pyramids, constructed of earth, rising from ten to seventy- five 
feet above the level of the valleys and plains upon which they are located, con- 
stituting elevations for temples for sun worship, and at other times foundations 
for the residences of kings, chiefs, and priests ; of conical mounds truncated, 
and placed upon commanding bluffs and hilltops, which served as signal sta- 
tions in this densely wooded region; fires kindled upon their summits with 
their glare by night and their smoke by day giving tokens which, repeated 
from kindred mounds along the reaches of rivers or on answering eminences, 
within a period much shorter than that allotted to the swiftest runner, warned 
tribe and nation of impending danger ; of artificial elevations, springing from 
the depths of extensive swamps liable to inundation, which served either as 
retreats during seasons of sudden overflow, or as foundations for the dwellings 
of those who there hunted and fished ; of grave-mounds, sometimes containing 
a single skeleton and denoting the last resting place of king or priest, and at 
other times covering the many dead of family or tribe ; and of stone-piles des- 
ignating the spots where warriors of note had fallen in battle. 

Cremation and urn- burial in some localities were in vogue. Were we not 
precluded by the general character of this sketch, it would be interesting to 
note the funeral customs observed by these Georgia tribes, and to describe the 
-various modes of sepulture adopted by them. Nor are we now permitted, in 
enumerating the proofs of early possession and combined labor, to do more 
than refer to the presence of circumvallations of earth and stone by which hill- 
tops and eminences were fortified ; to the existence of embankments of earth 
and ditches isolating considerable areas and protecting villages, temple-mounds 
and playgrounds; to the traces of fish-preserves, of chunky-yards, of pottery 
kilns, of pits whence clay was dug for the manufacture of fictile ware, of exca- 
vations where pot-stone was quarried, and of open air workshops. Among 
these indicia of primitive occupancy may also be mentioned extensive refuse 
piles and shell-heaps composed of marine, fluviatile, and lacustrine shells, upon 
the animals of which the natives fed, and from which they extracted pearls in 
large quantities. 

Aside from the profuse and fanciful ornamentation of their bodies with 
pigments of red, white, blue, yellow, and black, these Indians displaj^ed no 
inconsiderable taste in depicting signs, marks, images, and symbols on pre- 
pared skins, and on wood, bone and stone. The smooth bark of a growing 
tree, or the face of a rock was incised in commemoration of some feat of arms, 
in explanation of the strength or direction of a military expedition, or in sol- 
emnization of a treaty of peace. Upon precipitous slopes, and at points al- 



22 History op^ Augusta. 



most inaccessible have been noted carved and colored representations of the 
sun, accompanied by rude characters the significance of which is in the main 
unintelligible to the modern observer. Roughly cut intaglios in imitation of 
the human form, of the hands and feet of men, of the tracks of buffalo, deer, 
and other animals, of bows and arrows, canoes, circles, and other devices are 
still e.Ktant. Ignorant of alphabet, phonetic sign, or digit, these people by 
means of this primitive system of picture writing and intaglios sought to per- 
petuate the recollection of prominent events, and, by such visible shapes, to 
communicate intelligence. This effort was supplemented by the use of wam- 
pum. Their boldest attempts at sculpture are represented by stone images 
which encourage the impression that while they acknowledged the existence of 
a Great Spirit, venerated the sun as the source of life and heat and light, and 
entertained some notions of a future state, ihese Indians were -iven to some- 
thing nearly akin to idol or hero worship. 

Ignorant of the use of iron and bronze, and treating it as a malleable stone 
the Southern Indians hammered copper into various forms of utility and orna- 
ment. Among these may be enumerated ceremonial axes, gouges, chisels, 
knives, spearheads, ;irrovv- points, wristbands, armlets, anklets, gorgets, span- 
gles, beads, pendants, rods, and spindles for perforating pearls. 

Famous were the arrowmakers of this region. Party-colored jaspers, 
smoky, milky, and sweet water quartz, crystal, chalcedony, and varieties of 
flint and chert were the favorite materials from which spearpoints and arrow- 
heads were chipped. Every known variety here finds expression, and speci- 
mens of unusual beauty and symmetry abound. Their bows were as thick as 
a man's arm, eleven or twelve spans in length, of a single curve, and were 
capable of projecting arrows a long distance and with remarkable power. Bow- 
strings were made of stag's gut. or of deer-skin thongs, well twisted. A sup- 
ply of arrows was carried in a fawn-skin quiver whi(ili depended from the right 
hip. The light, tough river cane formed the customary arrow shaft, and to it 
the stone, bone, or wooden tip was fastened by means of moistened sinews, a 
glue made of the velvet horns of the deer, and a resinous preparation. With 
such artillery did these people wage wars and provide themselves with buffalo, 
deer, wild turkeys, game of various sorts, and large fishes. 

Of grooved axes, celts, perforated hatchets, and ceremonial axes, the varieties 
were abundant and the manufacture was most admirable. Stone hoes, adzes, 
picks, scrapers, gouges, awls, knives, cutting implements, saws, leaf-shaped im- 
plements, smoothing and crushing stones, hammer stones, spades, mortars, 
pestles, nut stones, and various objects of bone, shell and stone declare the oc- 
cupation, industries and mechanical labors of these nations. Discoidal stones 
still remind us of the famous Chungke game, and many forms of pipes revive 
the memories of the native tobacco plant, and of the esteem in which it was 
held by the natives. 



The Indian Occupation. 23 



To the pottery of this region the knight of Elvas paid high compliment 
when he described it as " Httle dififering from that of Estremoz or Monte- 
mor." Although unacquainted with the use of the potter's wheel, these sav- 
ages excelled in the ceramic art, bestowing special care upon the selection of 
their clays and their admixture with powdered shells, gravel, and pulverized 
mica, and upon the forms and the ornamentation of their vessels. Surviving 
the changes of more than a century and a half, and affording glimpses of an- 
cient tastes and customs, these fictile articles are among the most interesting 
remains which have come down to us. 

Pearls and shell ornaments were extensively worn by the members of the 
Georgia tribes, both male and female. The oysters of the Gulf of Mexico and 
the pearl-bearing unios of the Southern rivers and lakes supplied, in great 
abundance, these coveted ornaments. Through the intervention of primitive 
merchants, and by means of extensive trade relations, they were carried far 
into the interior. He who traded in them was welcomed everywhere. From 
marine, fluviatile, and lacustrine shells were manufactured beads, gorgets, pen^ 
dants. arm-guards, masks, pins, drinking cups, spoons and money. Margari- 
tiferous shells were diligently collected. They were opened by fire. The 
animals they contained were eaten, and the pearls found within them were per- 
forated and worn as beads about the neck, wrists, waist, and ankles. 

Tall, erect, copper- colored, with long, straight, black hair, with prominent 
noses and cheek bones, with regular features, arched brows, and eyes rather 
small but active and full of fire ; usually grave in deportment, reserved in con- 
versation, tenacious of natural rights, hospitable to strangers, kind to members of 
their own tribe, honest, haughty and cruel to an enemy, crafty, valiant, capable 
of great endurance, indifferent to pain, and often engaged in war, expert in hunt- 
ing and fishing, fond of music and dancing, observant of festivals, nimble of 
foot, skilled in the use of the bow and arrow, the club, the stone ax, the cane 
harpoon and the blowgun ; patient of fatigue and hunger, yet given to idle- 
ness and frequent meals; addicted to smoking; acknowledging the existence 
of a Supreme Being ; adoring the sun as the symbol of life and heat ; enter- 
taining some notions of an existence beyond the grave, plagued with visions, 
dreams, trances, and the influences of malign and lesser divinities — worshiping 
the devil and offering human sacrifices in propitiation of the spirit of evil — in- 
dulging to some extent in image worship, and perpetuating the memory of 
their distinguished dead by mounds and figures of wood and stone — excelling 
in the manufacture of fictile ware, boats of single trees, shawls, coverings, 
mantles beautifully woven and adorned with feathers, articles of dress made of 
the skins of buft'alo, bear and deer, carefully prepared, dyed and colored — fish- 
ing lines and nets of the inner bark of trees, mats and baskets of split cane, 
reeds and rushes, and laboriously constructed wears for the capture of fishes — 
extensively engaged in the fabrication, use and interchange of various articles 



24 History of Augusta. 



and implements of wood, bone, shell, copper and stone ; frequently monogam- 
ous — the contubernal relationship being dissoluble at the will of the male — the 
chiefs and principal men claiming and appropriating as many wives as fancy 
and station dictated; ornament-loving, jealous of their possessions; given to 
agriculture; obedient to kings ; thus runs a general description of these prim- 
itive inhabitants prior to the advent of the Europeans. Certain it is that the 
inroads of these foreigners violently shocked this aboriginal population, im- 
parting new ideas, introducing contagions formerly unknown, interrupting cus- 
toms long established, overturning acknowledged forms of government, impov- 
erishing whole districts, engendering a sense of insecurity until that time nnfelt, 
instigating intertribal wars, causing marked changes, and entailing losses and 
demoralizations far more potent than we are inclined, at first thought, to im- 
agine. The operation of that inexorable law which subordinates the feebler to 
the will of the stronger has compassed the utter expatriation of the red race 
from the limits of Georgia. Nevertheless, Indian memories linger among our 
hills, cling to our mountains, and are intimately associated with our noblest 
rivers. Tumuli still dot our valleys, and the plowshare upturns physical tokens 
of a former and an almost forgotten occupancy. 



CHAPTER n. 

Savannah Town — Settlement of Augusta— Earliest Descriptions of the Place — A Trading 
Post — Names of the First Traders. 

AS early as 17 16 Savannah Town, subsequently better known as Fort 
Moore, was located on the left bank of the Savannah River, only a few 
miles below the site at present occupied by the village of Hamburg. Its es- 
tablishment and maintenance were favored by the Carolina authorities in order 
that a profitable trade with the Creeks and Cherokees might be facilitated.' 
To this point goods were transported from Charles Town, both by land and 
water. The first agent in charge of the storehouse erected at this place was 
Captain Theophilus Hastings. He was assisted by John Sharp and Samuel 
Muckleroy. This settlement derived its name from the Sawannos, or Savan- 
nahs, a native tribe dwelling upon its banks and giving name to the river 
which flowed by. 

So rapidly did the traffic with the Aborigines increase, that before the 
close of the year'^Hastings applied for three additional assistants to aid him in 
its conduct. At Savannah Town a laced hat then readily commanded eight 
buckskins; a calico petticoat could not be purchased for less than twelve ; 



Settlement at Savannah Town. 25 

and so great was the demand for salt, gunpowder, lead, kettles, rum, looking- 
glasses, ornaments, and other articles of European manufacture, that the trad- 
ers were allowed by the commissioners to exact as much as the natives could 
be persuaded to give in exchange for them. 

Upon the settlement of Augusta and the opening of storehouses at that 
place, Savannah Town lost ground as a trading post and eventually fell into 
decay. Fort Moore, however, built of six-inch plank nailed to posts of light- 
Avood, with four towers at the angles on which small field- pieces were mounted, 
with curtains loopholed for small arms, and with wooden barracks capable of 
accommodating a garrison of one hundred men, was, for many years after- 
wards, preserved as a military establishment. 

Having confirmed the settlements at Savannah, Darien, and Frederica, 
Avith a view to extending the limits of the colonization to the northward, and 
with the intention of influencing in behalf of the Province of Georgia the ex- 
tensive Indian trade which had been monopolized by South Carolina, Mr. 
Oglethorpe, toward the close of 1735, ordered that a town should be marked 
out on the right bank of the Savannah River at the head of navigation and 
just below the falls. In honor of a royal princess he called it Augusta; and, 
during the following year, gave instructions for its population and defense. 
Warehouses were constructed, and these were supplied with such goods as the 
natives coveted. Regulations were promulgated and enforced looking to fair 
•dealing between seller and purchaser. It was the purpose of the founder of 
the colony of Georgia, in all his dealings with the savages, to do equity, and 
to permit no commercial intercourse save by licensed traders who were held to 
strict accountability. The Indians soon perceived the advantages accorded to 
them by the Georgia agents, and quickly transferred to Augusta the traffic 
which hitherto had been conducted at Savannah Town. 

At the outset the only communication with the town was by means of the 
Savannah River, which was utilized alike by traders ascending in boats from 
Charles Tow^n and Savannah, and by Indians traversing the upper portions of 
the stream in canoes. Soon, however, a road was opened between Augusta 
and Savannah, by way of Ebenezer, which materially contributed to the con- 
venience of the dwellers in those, at that time, distant localities. 

The earliest account we have of Augusta is contained in " A State of the 
Province of Georgia, attested upon oath in the court of Savannah, November 
10, 1740." 1 It runs as follows : "Seven miles above New Windsor, on the 
Georgia side, lies the town of Augusta, just below the Falls ; this was laid out 
by the Trustees' Orders, in the Year 1735. which has thriven prodigiously; 
there are several Warehouses thoroughly well furnished with Goods for the 
Indiaji Trade, and five large Boats belonging to the different Inhabitants of 
the Town, which can carry about nine or ten thousand Weight of Deer- Skins 

^ pp. 6 and 7. London, mdccxlii. 



26 History of Augusta. 

each, making four or five Voyages at least in a Year to CJiatles-Toivn for ex- 
porting to England ; and the Value of each Cargo is computed to be from \2 
to 1, 500 i," Sterling. Hither all the English Traders, with their Servants, resort 
in the Spring; and 'tis computed above two thousand Horses come hither at 
that Season; and the Traders, Pack- horsemen. Servants, Townsmen, and oth- 
ers depending upon that Business, are moderately computed to be six hun- 
dred white Men who live b\- their Trade, carrying upon Pack-horses all kinds 
of proper EnglisJi Goods; for which the Indians pay in Deer-Skins, Bever, 
and other Furs ; each Indian Hunter is reckoned to get three hundred Weight 
of Deer-Skins in a Year. This is a very advantageous Trade to England, 
since it is mostly paid for in Woollen and Iron. 

" Above this Town to the North West and on the Georgia Side of the River, 
the C/ierokecs live in the Valley of the Applachin Mountains; they were about 
five thousand Warriors ; but last year it is computed they lost a thousand, 
partly by the Small-Pox, and partly (as they themselves say) by too much 
Rum brought from Carolina. The French are striving to get this Nation from 
us ; which, if they do, Carolina must be supported by a vast Number of 
Troops, or lost : But as long as we keep the Town of Angnsta, our Party in 
the Cherokees can be so easily furnished with Arms, Ammunition and Neces- 
saries, that the Fteneh will not be able to gain any Ground there. 

"The Creek Indians hve to the Westward of the Town. Their chief Town 
is the Coivetas, two hundred Miles from Augusla, and one hundred and twenty 
Miles from the nearest French Fort. The Loiver Creeks consist of about a 
thousand, and the Upper Creeks of about seven hundred Warriors, upon the 
Edge of whose Country the French Fort oi Albamahs lies : They are esteemed 
to be sincerely attached to his Majesty's interest. 

" Beyond the Creeks lie the brave Chickesas, who inhabit near the Jlissis- 
ipi River, and possess the Banks of it ; these have resisted both the Bribes and 
Arms of the French, and Traders sent by us live amongst them. 

"At Augusta there is a handsome Fort, where there is a small garrison of 
about twelve or fifteen Men, besides Officers ; and one Reason that drew the 
Traders to settle the Town of Augusta was the Safety they received from this 
Fort which stands upon high Ground^ on the side of the River Savannah, 
which is there one hundred and forty Yards wide, and very deep ; another Rea- 
son was the Richness and Fertility of the Land. The great Value of this Town 
of Augusta occasioned the General to have a Path marked out, through the 
Woods, from thence to Old Ebenezer ; and the Cherokee Indians have marked 
out one from thence to their Nation, so that Horsemen can now ride from the 
Town of Savannah to the Nation of Cherokees and any other of the Indian 
Nations all on the Georgia Side of the River ; but there are some bad places 
which ought to be causewayed and made good, and which the General says 

1 Now occupied by St. Paul's Church and cemeter)-. 



Names of First Traders. 27 

he has not yet Capacity to do. This Road begins to be frequented, and will 
every day be more and more so, and by it the Cherokee Indians can at any 
time come down to our Assistance." 

From another contemporaneous account we learn that in 1739 above six 
thousand bushels of Indian corn, and a considerable quantity of wheat, were 
harvested by the citizens of Augusta for home consumption ; and that during 
the same year " about one hundred thousand Weight of Skins was brought 
■from thence. "1 

The two tracts from which we have quoted, pubHshed under the sanction 
of the trustees and designed to convey a most favorable impression of the 
progress of the colony of Georgia, evoked counter statements from the dis- 
affected. In one'-^ of these we find the following statements and affidavits re- 
lating to the then condition of Augusta. 

"A List of such Traders, Men, and Horses, as come from other Parts and 
only pass through or by Augusta in their Way to the Creek Nation. 

Mess Wood and Brown, from S. Carolina 8 men. 60 horses. 

Daniel Clark, from Ditto 4 " 20 '^ 

Archibald McGilvray, from Ditto 3 " '^ 

George Cossons, from Ditto 4 " 3° 

Jeremiah Knott, from Ditto 4 " 3° 

,, 3 Spencer, from Mount-pleasant 3 " '^ 

Messrs. -j Qii^Q^g^ from Ditto 4 " 20 " 

,, \ Barnett, from Ditto , 3 " 20 

^^^^^'^- ■( Ladson, from Ditto 3 ^j 20 '^• 

James Cossons, from South Carolina 5 " 3° 

George Golphin, from Ditto 4 " 25 

William Sleuthers, from Ditto 4 " 25 

49 314 

" A list of the whole Inhabitants of the Township of Augusta in Georgia. 

Mr Kennedy O Brien 5 men. 3 women. o children. 

Thomas Smith i " i '' o 

Messrs Mackenzie and Frazer 5 " ^ " ° 

John Miller 2 '' i '' i 

Thomas Goodale 2 " I " 2 

Samuel Brown 2 " i " i ^ 

Sanders Ross 2 " o " o 

A.Sadler i " ^ " ' 

A. Taylor I " i " ° " 

William Clark i ''^ i '' ° 'I 

Henry Overstreet i " ' " 4 

Locklan McBean 2 " 2 " i 

William Gray 4 " o " o " 

William Calabern o " 2 " 2 " 

29 16 12 

1 An Impartial Enquiry into the State and Utility of the Province of Georgia, p. 49. Lon- 
don. MDCCXLI. 

^ A Brief Account of the Causes that have retarded the Progress of the Colony of Georgia 
an America, <S^»t^, Q^c, pp. 37 to 41. London, MDCCXLlll. 



28 History of Augusta. 



" A List of Traders, Men, and Horses employed from Augusta in the 
Chickasaw and Creek Trade. 

George Mackay 4 men. 20 horses. 

Henry Elsey 3 " 20 

Messrs Facey and Macqueen 6 " 40 

John Wright 4 " 20 

John Gardner 3 " 20 

William Calabern 3 " 15 

Tho : Andrews, in Creek and Chickasaw Nations 8 " 70 

Thomas Daval 3 " 20 

John Cammell 3 " 20 

Paul Rundall 3 " 20 

Nicholas Chinery 3 " 20 

William Newberr)' 3 " 20 

46 305 

"Savannah, July 14, 1741. • John Gardner." 

" The Day above written Jo Jin Gardner of Augusta, Indian Trader, person- 
ally came and appeared before me, John Fallowfield, one of the Bailiffs of the 
Town of Savannah, and made oath that the said several Accounts of Traders^ 
Horses, and Men employed in the Creek and Chickasaiv Nations : and also- 
the List of the white Persons, Men, Women, and Children now living in the 
Township oi Aiignsta are, to the best of the said Deponent's Knowledge, /«.?/' 
and true ; and that the Persons residing in, and belonging to, the Fort of Au- 
gusta are not contained in the said Lists above, and on the other Side of this- 
Paper Written. John Gardner, 

" Sworn the Day and Year 

above-written, at Savannah aforesaid. 

"John P^allowfield." 

" The Deposition of Kennedy O'Brien, of Atigusta, in the Colony of Geor- 
gia, Merchant, one of the first Inhabitants of the said Township and a con- 
stant Resident therein ever since the first Settlement thereof, who, being duly- 
sworn on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God, saith : That, whereas, he 
hath been informed that a Representation hath lately been made and trans- 
mitted to the Honourable the Trustees for establishing the said Colony oi Geor- 
gia, setting forth the flourishing State and Condition of the said Colony ia- 
general, and of the said Township oi Augusta in particular, and the said depo- 
nent being willing to undeceive any or all who may be thereby induced to 
give credit to the said Representation, doth voluntarily, and of his own accord,, 
declare and maintain the following Truths to be strictly just. 

" I : That there are not more t}i\zxv forty White Men, Inhabitants and Resi- 
dents of the said Township of Augusta, save only the Soldiers in Garrison' 
there, which are about fifteen or twenty more. 

" 2 : That all, or most of the Corti that hath been 7nade and raised there,, 
hath been wrought and matiufactured by Negroes belonging to the said Inhab- 
itants, and those opposite to them on the North Side of the River in South 
Carolina. 

" 3: That at least one third Part of the Corn reported to be raised in Au- 
gusta is raised in South Carolina, hard by the said Township. 

" 4: That there are not more thdin five hundred Horses employed in the In- 
dian Trade, that resort to Augusta, altho' it is esteemed the Key to the Creek,. 



Trading Post at Augusta. 29 

the Chickasaw, and the Cherokee Nations, and that the most of those Horses^ 
and Persons employed about them and interested and concerned in them, do 
as often go to New Windsor, in South Carolina to trade, as to Angiista. 

" 5 : That there are now in Augusta but three trading Houses, and those ia 
a State of Decay and languishing Condition ; and that through the ill Regula- 
tion of the Indian Trade 

" And this Deponent further saith that no Ojl, Wine, nor Olives, hath ever 
been produced at Augusta, or hath ever been attempted to be raised or culti- 
vated there to the best of this Deponent's Knowledge. And further this De- 
ponent saith not. KENNEDY O'Brien. 

" Subscribed and Sworn to before 
me, this 9th day of July, 1741, 

"John Pye, Recorder." 1 

Deeming it very important to obtain the consent of the natives to the set- 
tlement of Europeans within the territory claimed by them, and regarding the 
good will of the Indians as essential to the secure and peaceable residence of the 
colonists, Mr. Oglethorpe directed his earliest attention to making treaties of 
alliance with the red men. That these treaties should include agreements for 
mutual intercourse and trade seemed not only prudent, but indispensable, par- 
ticularly as Tomo-chi-chi, and the micos of the Creeks who accompanied him 
to England, had requested that stipulations should be entered mto regarding- 
the quantity, quality, and prices of goods, and the accuracy of the weights and 
measures used in determining the value of the articles offered in exchange for 
buffalo hides, deer-skins, peltry, etc. The trustees therefore established cer- 
tain regulations designed to prevent in future the impositions of which the In- 
dians complained. To carry these into effect it was thought proper that none 
should be permitted to trade with the Indians except such as should apply for 
and receive special, license, and agree to conduct the traffic according to pre- 
scribed rules, and upon fair and equitable principles. It was, doubtless, of 
these regulations, intended to protect the natives, that the affiant, O'Brien, 
complained, when he alluded to the " ill regulation of the Indian trade." The 
introduction of rum and the employment of slave labor within the confines of 
Georgia were then strictly forbidden. 

While the accounts furnished by the trustees, and those submitted by cer- 
tain of the colonists who were not in accord with their purposes in the admin- 
istration of the important trust, touching the early prosperity of Augusta, are 
not harmonious, it may not be questioned that this town, as a trading post, 
rapidly assumed an importance far beyond that which could be fairly claimed 
by any other settlement within the confines of the province. Multitudes of 
Indians flocked hither at certain seasons of the year. Hence the traders de- 

' Compare " A True and Historical Narrative of the Colony of Georgia in America," etc. 
by Tailfer, Anderson. Douglas and Others, pp. 113, 114. Charles-Town, South Carolina, MD- 
CCXLI. 



30 History of Augusta. 



parted to exchange their goods for the peltry of the natives dweUing far in the 
interior, and here were deposited both the merchandise intended for barter 
and the skins obtained in traffic. Boats were constantly ascending and de- 
scending the Savannah River. It was a busy scene in the midst of wild woods, 
this constant arrival and departure of a picturesque trading population, this re- 
curring receipt and shipment of goods, this ceaseless exchange of commodi- 
ties. So advantageous was its situation that Augusta was, for many years, 
reckoned the most important mart for Indian traffic within the limits both of 
Georgia and of South Carolina. 

O'Brien began the settlement of the town largely at his individual charge, 
and by him was the first commodious storehouse there erected. As a reward 
for his energy and enterprise, General Oglethorpe, on the 8th of March, 1739, 
recommended the trustees to grant " him and the heirs male of his body " five 
hundred acres of land. Roger de Lacey, a noted Indian trader, was another 
prominent pioneer who materially assisted in the development of the little 
town. At an early period of its existence, a detachment of ten men, under the 
■command of Captain Kent, was sent up and supported by the trust for the pro- 
^ tection of the inhabitants of Augusta. A small fort, with wooden walls, mus- 
ket proof, and arm'ed with a few small iron field pieces, was erected upon the 
river bank where St. Paul's Church now stands. Within were quarters for the 
garrison, and the structure was mainly intended as a place of retreat in seasons 
of danger. The dwellings of the early inhabitants were limited in their capac- 
ity, and builded of wood. They were distributed along the river front. The 
land stretching away to the south was marish, covered by a dense growth of 
forest trees, and permeated here and there by sluggish lagoons. The Savan- 
nah River was then limpid, and abounded in animal life. The woods were 
filled with deer, wild turkeys, squirrels, raccoons, opossums, ducks, woodcock 
and rabbits ; while, at certain seasons and at no great remove, herds of buffalo 
roamed through the interior. The soil was fertile to the last degree, and agri- 
•culture was not long neglected. Contrary to the wish and the injunction of the 
trustees, negro slaves were hired from their Carolina owners and employed in 
■clearing lands and in cultivating the cereals, among which Indian corn pre- 
■dominated. Trade, however, engrossed the general attention, and complaint 
was made of the sharp practice of some of the settlers who, in their anxiety to 
drive the earliest bargains with both incoming natives and returning pack- 
horsemen, removed from the village, and, recking neither the isolation nor the 
■dangers of their exposed situations, located their dwellings and little store- 
houses along the paths leading into the Indian country. Of schools and school- 
masters, of churches and parsons, of doctors and lawyers, there were none. 
The wants of these early inhabitants were few, and of intellectual life, for more 
than a decade, there seems to have been little. The business of the inhabi- 
tants was the procurement and exchange of duffel, salt, gunpowder, lead, ket- 



General Oglethorpe. 31 

ties, beads, rum, looking-glasses, trinkets, and other articles of European man- 
ufacture, for peltry, venison, and ponies, offered by the Indians. As Savannah 
long continued to be the capital and commercial metropolis of the colony, and 
as Frederica, before the middle of the century, became the Thermopylae of the 
Southern Anglo-American provinces, so did Augusta, for many years, main- 
tain her supremacy as the chief trading post within the confines of Georgia — 
the point through which flowed the main current of commerce between the 
English and the native population. 



CHAPTER III. 



General Oglethorpe's Visit to Augusta — His Conference with the Creeks at Coweta Town 
— Colonel Stephens's Account of the Progress of the Plantation — Oglethorpe's Fairness in 
Dealing with the Indians— Introduction of Slave Labor— Rev. Jonathan Copp — Distribution 
of Presents for the Indians — Fort at Augusta — Early Legislation — Governor Reynolds's 
" Representation " — Parishes Established —Representation and Petition from Augusta. 

ONLY once did General Oglethorpe visit Augusta. This was in' Septem- 
ber, 1739. He was then returning to Savannah from his perilous and im- 
portant journey to Coweta Town, where he had met in convention seven thou- 
sand red warriors and brought about a pacification of the Indian nations. The 
exposure and anxieties encountered on the expedition and while in attendance 
upon that coftference, so wrought upon his iron constitution that he was pros^ 
trated by a slow fever. In this enfeebled condition he sought repose for a few 
days at Augusta. From this place he wrote the following letter : 

" Fort Augusta in Georgia. 
" 5th September, 1739 
"Sr: I am just arrived at this Place from the Assembled Estates of the 
Creek Nation. They have very fully declared their rights to and possession 
of all the Land as far as the River Saint Johns, and their Concession of the Sea 
Coast, Islands, and other Lands to the Trustees, of which they have made a 
regular Act. If I had not gone up, the misunderstandings between them and 
the Carolina Traders, fomented by our two neighboring Nations, would prob- 
ably have occasioned their beginning a war which I believe might have been 
the result of this general meeting; but as their complaints were reasonable, I 
gave them satisfaction in all of them, and everything is entirely settled m 
peace. It is impossible to describe the joy they expressed at my arrival ; they 
met me forty miles in the woods, and layd Provisions on the roads in the woods. 
The Express being just going to Charles-Town, I can say no more, but I have 



32 History of Augusta. 



had a burning fever of which I am perfectly well recovered. I hope the Trus- 
tees will accept of this as a letter to them. 

" I am, S'", your very humble Serv' 

"James Oglethorpe. 
"To Mr. Harman Verelst."^ 

Commenting upon this remarkable mission of General Oglethorpe, Mr. 
Spalding, with equal truth and fervor, remarks : " When we call into remem- 
brance the then force of these tribes — for they could have brought into the 
■ field twenty thousand fighting men — when we call to remembrance the influ- 
ence the French had everywhere else obtained over the Indians — when we call 
to remembrance the distance he had to travel through solitary pathways, . . . 
exposed to summer suns, night dews, and to the treachery of any single Indian 
who knew — and every Indian knew — the rich reward that would have awaited 
him for the act from the Spaniards in St. Augustine, or the French in Mobile, 
surely we may proudly ask what soldier ever gave higher proof of courage? 
What gentleman ever gave greater evidence of magnanimity ? What English 
governor of an American province ever gave such assurance of deep devotion 
to public duty ? "^ 

But for this manly conference with the red men in the heart of their own 
■country, and the admiration with which his presence, courage and bearing in- 
spired the assembled chiefs, Oglethorpe could not have compassed this pacifi- 
cation and secured this treaty of amity so essential to the welfare of the 
■colony now on the eve of most serious complications with the Spaniards in 
Florida. 

The garrison detailed and supported by the Trust for the protection of the 
inhabitants of Augusta, and consisting of a commissioned officer and from ten 
to twenty men, was regularly maintained until 1767, when, in the language of 
Sir James Wright, Georgia's third and last royal governor, " the Rangers in 
this province were broke." 

Under date of Tuesday, September 19, 1738, Colonel William Stephens, 
writing at Savanah, enters this memorandum in his journal, kept for the infor- 
mation of the trustees:^ "Mr. Samuel Browti, one of our principal Traders in 
the Indian Nations, came to Town by way of Attgnsta, in a weak state of 
health ; and as he was a Settler also at that Place, where he had built a House 
upon a Lot granted him, he had some Stay in his Way. I was sorry to hear 
by him that they were grown extream sickly thereabouts ; that it came through 
Carolina by Degrees to their Settlement at New Windsor, and thence soon 
crossed to Augusta ; that a great many were down in Fevers at his coming 

^ P. R. O., Georgia, B. T., vol. 21, p. 162. 

' Collections of the Georgia Historical Society, vol. i, p. 263. Savannah, mdcccxl. 

^ A Journal of the proceedings ill Georgia October 10, 1737, etc., vol. i, p. 290. London. 
MDCCXLII. 



General Oglethorpe. 33 



away ; and that Lieutenant Kent was so ill that it was feared he could not live. 
At the same Time I received a Letter from one John Miller, who keeps Stores 
at Augusta to serve the Indian Traders, acquainting me that the Inhabitants 
were settling in a very irregular Manner by building Stores on five hundred 
Acre Lots some Miles distant from each other up the Path towards the Creeks: 
The Reason for which is that the Out- Parts have the Advantage and chance of 
intercepting the Customers of those who live in or near the Town o^ Augusta ; 
but consequently He under greater Danger of being cut off by Enemies of any 
Sort : Whereas a collected Body of People would be better able to defend 
themselves, or retire and take the Benefit of the Fort: Moreover it will be in 
the Power of such Indian Traders as run in Debt with the settled Storekeepers 
to go to one of those out-lying Stores and be supplied, and then return to the 
Indian Nation, thereby defrauding their former Creditors who cannot bring 
them to regular Justice. Mr. Brown confirming this, I thought it worth Notice, 
and conceive it mav be worth the Consideration of such as have Power to regu- 
late it better." 

That in the autumn this malarial region, badly drained, the atmosphere 
impregnated with noxious exhalations from a soil recently denuded of forest 
trees and subjected by the plow to the direct rays of a semi-tropical sun, should 
have been visited by fevers of a severe type excites no wonder. Exposure, in- 
difference to hygenic precautions, and sometimes insufficient food, tended still 
further to render constitutions, not yet fairly acclimated, liable to their per- 
nicious influences. 

At a remove from the cdurts established in Savanah, and with no one save 
a magistrate, holding a verbal commission, to decide in claim cases or to pun- 
ish where breaches of the peace occurred, the citizens of Augusta were, for a 
number of years, largely a law unto themselves, managing their affairs and set- 
tling their disputes in their own way. 

We marvel too that this feeble plantation did not, at the outset, encounter 
violent shocks at the hands of the natives, who, in the neighborhood, far out- 
numbered the Europeans. The truth is the Uchees, the Kiokees, the Savan- 
nahs and the Creeks and Cherokees generally, were kind and forbearing in 
their intercourse with the English. Whenever difficulties occurred between 
the races, the provocation, in most instances, could be fairly laid at the door of 
the white man. With the natives Oglethorpe's influence was overshadowing, 
and his reputation for fair dealing and generosity unquestioned. 

In nothing were the prudence, wisdom, skill and ability of the founder of 
the colony of Georgia more" conspicuous than in his conduct toward and treat- 
ment of the Indians. The ascendency he acquired over them, the respect they 
entertained for him, and the manly, generous and just policy he ever main- 
tained in his intercourse with the native tribes of the region are remarkable. 
Their favor, at the outset, was essential to the repose of the settlement ; their 



5 



34 History of Augusta. 



friendship necessary to its existence. In the beginning, few in numbers and 
isolated in position, a hostile breath would have blown it. into nothingness. 
As claimants of the soil by virtue of prior occupancy, it was important that the 
title they asserted to these their hunting-grounds should, at-an early moment, 
be peaceably and formally extinguished. A resort to the sword in assertion 
of England's dominion over this territory would haveled at once to ambush, 
alarm, and bloodshed. Tlie adoption of a violent and coercive course toward 
tlie aborigines would h.ive aroused their hostility and imperiled the success of 
the plantation. Far better the plan of conciliation. This Oglethorpe fully 
recognized, and shaped his policy accordingly. 

In the spring of 1739 the German Jesuit, Christian Priber, endeavored, in 
the interest of the French, to prejudice the minds of the Cherokees against the 
English. A conference, however, held at Augusta in April of that year, re- 
sulted in an interchange of good will and a confirmation of the amicable rela- 
tions subsisting between the colonists and the dwellers among the mountains 
of Appalatcy.i 

While General Oglethorpe was in Augusta, in September of this year, he 
was visited by chiefs from the Chickesas and Cherokees. Those from the latter 
nation complained that some of their people had been poisoned by rum sold 
to them by the traders. They were much incensed and threatened revenge. 
Upon inquiring into the matter the general ascertained that some unlicensed 
traders from Carolina had communicated the smallpox to the Indians, who, 
ignorant of the method of treating the disease, had fallen victims to that loath- 
some distemper. He found it difficult to convince the chiefs of the true cause 
of the calamity. They were at length appeased, and departed with the assur- 
ance that they might apprehend no trouble in dealing with the licensed traders 
from Georgia, as permits were never granted to those unworthy of confidence. ^ 

In March, 1740, a complaint was lodged with the authorities in Savannah 
that in consequence of the introduction of negro slaves from Carolina, who 
performed all the manual labor, an ordinary workman could find but little 
employment at Augusta. In exercising the garrison of Fort Augusta, one of 
the iron guns burst and b^•^\' off the head of a soldier. On the 30th of the fol- 
lowing June, Lieutenant Kent, newly arrived from Augusta, informed Colonel 
Stephens that he experienced considerable difficulty in conducting the civil 
affairs of the settlement. There was so much "jangling among the traders," 
and so prone were they " to decide their controversies by force," that the 
local magistrate was greatly embarrassed in the administration of justice. 
>\^ In April, 1 741, the garrison of Fort Augusta was "augmented from twelve 
to twenty men." 

Until the removal of the prohibition respecting the introduction, employ- 

' See blephens 'Joia-nal of Proceediitgs, vol. i, pp. 455,456. London, MDCCXLII. 
"See Wright's Memoir of Oglethorpe, p. 219. London. 1867. 



Introduction of Slave Labor. 35 



ment, and ownership of slaves in Georgia, and until the enlargement of the 
tenure by which lands were holden of the crown, but slow progress was made 
in develoii ig the agricultural interests of the district of St. Paul. So soon 
however, <is the trustees saw fit to modify their restrictions in these respects, 
the colon) " had a better appearance of thriving" than at any former period 
of its existence. No two individuals were so instrumental in prevailing upon 
the Trustees to permit Georgia the right, long enjoyed by her sister English 
colonies in America, of owning and using negro slaves, as the Rev. George 
Whitefield and the Hon. James Habersham. The former boldly asserted that 
the transportation of the African from his home of barbarism to a Christian 
land, where he would be humanly tre.ited and required to perform his share of 
toil common to the lot of humanity, was advantageous ; while the latter af- 
firmed that the colony could not prosper without the intervention of slave 
labor. 

In the Provincial Assembly which convened in Savannah on the 15th of 
January, 175 i, to concert measures and submit recommendations for the gen- 
eral welfare of the province, Augusta was represented by George Cadogan and 
David Douglass. 

As early as 1750 the gentlemen of Augusta built "a handsome and con- 
venient church," opposite one of the curtains of the fort, and so near that its 
guns afforded ample protection. This little wooden temple indicated the fur- 
thest advance the Church of England had thus far made into the Indian ter- 
ritory. 

In order to attract a minister the inhabitants of this town promised to 
erect a parsonage, cultivate the glebe lands, and contribute ;^20 a year toward 
his maintenance. The Rev. Jonathan Copp, a native of Connecticut and a grad- 
uate of Yale College, having in December, 1750, been ordained in England as a 
deacon and priest by Dr. Sherlock, bishop of London, came to Augusta the fol- 
lowing year and there entered upon'his ministry. His congregation numbered 
nearly one hundred. Among them were eight communicants. The parson- 
age, however, had not been erected, the glebe lands were uncultivated, and the 
hope of receiving prompt payment of the stipend of ^20 appeared uncertain. 
"Separated from any brother clergyman by one hundred and thirty miles of 
wilderness," on the frontier of civilization, in pro.ximity to the Indian territory, 
and daily liable to the merciless attacks of savages, "with but little to cheer and 
much to discourage, with small emolument and arduous labor," he here con- 
tinued as a missionary until 1 756, .wto, jlfi f),e£-e^ted a call to the rectorship of 
St. John's parish in South CaroHna.^ 



' He was succeeded in 1764 by the Rev. Samuel Trink. who, for three years, discharged 
the duties of rector of the parish. Removing- in 1767 to Savannah, his station for the ensuing 
three years was filled by the Rev. Edward Ellington. When he resigned the pastorate there 
were forty communicants in St. Paul's Church, and during his ministry he baptized four hun- 



36 History of Augusta. 



The Trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia in America having sur- 
rendered their charter and relieved themselves from the further execution of a 
trust which had grown quite beyond their management, his Majesty, King 
George, II, was pleased, on the 6th of August, 1754, to appoint Captain John 
Reynolds governor of the Province of Georgia. One of his earliest official 
acts, after his arrival in Savannah on the 29th of October, was to cause a liberal 
supply of presents to be distributed at Augusta to the Chickasaws, Creeks, 
Uchees and Cherokees whom, as he was advised by Indian traders of repute, 
the French were endeavoring to excite to hostilities against the upper settle- 
ments of Georgia and Carolina. A justice was commissioned for the district 
of Saint Paul. He was authorized to hear and determine causes where the 
amount involved did not exceed forty shillings. For punishing slaves commit- 
ting capital crimes, a commission of oyer and terminer might, upon an emer- 
gency, be issued to the justice of the district in which the offence was commit- 
ted to try the accused without a jury. If found guilty and sentenced to death, 
the justice might award execution, and set upon the slave a value which was 
afterwards to be paid to the owner by the general assembly "as an encourage- 
ment to the people to discover the villainies of their slaves." Causes of special 
moment in law and equity, in admiralty, and of a criminal nature, were to be 
tried by the courts which were established in Savannah. 

Upon the arrival of the Indian presents in December, 1755, Governor Rey- 
nolds proceeded to Augusta that he might superintend their distribution and 
utilize the occasion in confirming the amicable relations existing between the 
colonists and their red neighbors. While there awaiting the assembling of the 
chiefs, he was summoned to Savannah by a matter claiming his immediate and 
personal attention. He was therefore constrained to leave the presents, and 
the addresses he had prepared, with Mr. William Little, commissioner and 
agent for Indian affairs, who, a week after the departure of the governor, read 
those speeches and distributed the presents to some three himdred chiefs and 
head warriors. The convocation was peaceful and amicable. Well pleased 
with the royal gifts, the aborigines renewed their pledges of friendship. 

dred and twenty-eight persons, and married sixty-two couples. During the war St. Paul's 
Church, which was a small wooden structure, perished, there being no clergymen in charge, 
and no worshippers within its frail walls. In 1786 a second sacred edifice was erected on the 
site of the first, and it, in turn, gave away to the present structure, the foundations of which 
were laid in 181 8. In 1789 the Rev. Mr. Palmer was in charge of the church, and he was fol- 
lowed by the Rev. Adam Boyd, whose pastorate endured until 1798. Between this date and 
the year 1818, there appear to have been no divine ministrations under the exclusive auspices 
of the Protestant Episcopal denomination within the porciies of St. Paul's Church. The 
glebe lands, consisting of fifteen acres, to which the parish church was originally entitled, have 
been lost, or absorbed within the control and possession of the trustees ot the Richmond 
county Academy. During the last two years of the past century, and the first eighteen years 
of the present, St. Paul's Church, under the supervision of the trustees ot the Richmond Acad- 
emy, appears to have been used as a place of worshij) by all denominations of Christians. 



Early Defenses of Augusta. 37 

While in Augusta, Governor Reynolds, who, true to his mihtary profes- 
sion and instincts, was devoting, perhaps, more attention to the defenses of the 
province than to any other matter connected with its administration and de- 
velopment, made a personal inspection of the fort located at that place. Built 
■of wood, and one hundred and twenty feet square, he found it so rotten that a 
large portion of it was propped up to prevent its walls from faUing. Its eight 
small iron guns were honeycombed, and their carriages in an unserviceable 
condition. Of ordnance stores there was but a very scant supply. 

The population of Georgia, sadly dispersed, did not then aggregate more 
than sixty-four hundred souls. Of these, seven hundred and fifty-six, capable 
of bearing arms, were enrolled .in the militia and officered. Poorly equipped, 
and organized into eight companies, they were drilled six times each year. 
Widely separated, their concentration on an emergency was very difficult. 
There was, in truth, not a fortification within the limits of the province in even 
tolerable condition. 

In the elaborate "representation of the forts and garrisons necessary for the 
defense of Georgia," which, with the assistance of John Gerar, William, De- 
Brahm, one of the royal surveyors and a captain of engineers of high repute, 
the governor matured, and, on the 5th of January, 1756, submitted for the ap- 
proval of the home government, he urged that a fort should be constructed 
for the protection of Augusta, square in outline, "/. e. four Poligons each 448 
feet, with four Bastions altogether on one Horizon." For its armament he 

suggested : 

■'12, 12 Pounders/^ 

,^ , „ „ o „ r> 1 - Cannon. 

10, I, 2, 3. 6, 9 Pounders ( 

2, 10 ■ Pounders Haubices. 

24" 

The garrison was to consist of one hundred and fifty regulars, with a re- 
inforcement of three hundred men, viz., one hundred and fifty militia, and one 
hundred and fifty Indians. In addition, a captain, a sergeant, and twenty- 
nine men were to be kept on duty at this point to serve in the capacity of 
"Rangers." It is scarcely necessary to add that this extravagant scheme did 
not commend itself to the approval of the board of trade; and, peace then 
reigning within the borders of the province, but little expenditure was made in 
behalf of its fortifications. 

It was during Governor Ellis's administration that the act was passed by the 
Colonial Legislature dividing the several districts of the province into parishes, 
providing for the establishment of religious worship according to the rites and 
ceremonies of*the Church of England, and empowering the churchwardens and 
vestrymen of the respective parishes to assess rates for the repair of churches, 
the relief of the poor, and for other parochial services. This act was approved 
■on the 17th of March, 1758. 



38 History of Augusta. 



For the purpose of keeping church edifices in repair, for the care of the re- 
spective cemeteries, sacred utensils, and ornaments, to provide bread and wine 
for tlie Holy Eucharist, to pay the salaries of clerk and sexton, and to make 
provision for the poor and impotent of the several parishes, the rector, church- 
wardens, and vestrymen were authorized to levy a tax on the estate, real and 
personal, of all the inhabitants within the respective parishes, sufficient to yield 
in the parishes of Christ Church and of St. Paul ;^30each, and in the parishes 
where no churches had as yet been erected ^ lo each. The method of assess- 
ing and collecting this ta.x was pointed out. 

With the rector, churchwardens, and vestr\'men rested the power of ap- 
pointing se.xtons, and of fixing their salaries and fees. The rector was to be 
one of the vestry, and the churchwardens in each parish were directed to 
procure, at the charge of the parish, a well bound paper or paxhment book 
wherein the vestry-clerk of the parish was to register the "births, christenings^ 
marriages, and burials of all and every person and persons that shall from time 
to time be born, christened, married, or buried within the said parish, under 
the penalty of five pounds sterling on failure thereof" For each entry the 
vestry clerk was entitled to receive, as a fee, one shilling sterling. These reg- 
isters were to be adjudged and accepted in all courts of record in the province 
as furnishing sufficient proof of the births, marriages, christenings, and burials 
therein mentioned; and if any party was convicted of willfully making or caus- 
ing to be made any false entry therein, or of maliciously erasing, altering, or 
defacing an entry, ^jr of embezzling any entry or book of record, he was to be 
adjudged guilty of- a felony, and to be punished with death without benefit of 
clergy. Each vestry was instructed to nominate a proper person to keep a 
record of its proceedings, and to act as the custodian of its books and pai)ers. 
No authority was conferred upon rectors to exercise any ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
tion, or to administer ecclesiastical law. 

Such are the leading provisions of the act dividing Georgia into parishes, 
and erecting churches in sympathy with the tenets of the Established Church 
of England. While the patronage of the Crown and of the Colonial Assembly 
was extended in this special manner in aid of churches professing the Episco- 
pal faith, it was not designed to favor them by an exclusive recognition. The 
idea appeared to be to accord to that denomination within the limits of Geor- 
gia a prestige akin to that which the Church of England enjoyed within the 
realm, to create certain offices for the encouragment of that religious per- 
suasion and the extension of the gospel in accordance with its forms of wor- 
ship and mode of government, and to provide a method by which faithful reg- 
isters of births, marriages, christenings, and deaths might be kept and perpet- 
uated. Numerous were the Dissenters then in the province. They were rep- 
resented by Presbyterians, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Methodists, a few 
Baptists, and some Hebrews. To all sects, save Papists, was free toleration 



French Jealousy. 39 



accorded, and whenever a Dissenting congregation organized and applied for a 
grant of land whereon to build a church the petition did not pass unheeded. 
There can be no doubt, however, but that it was the intention of the govern- 
ment, both royal and colonial, to engraft the Church of England upon the 
province, and, within certain limits, to advance its prosperity and insure its 
permanency. At the same time an adherence to its rubrics was in no wise 
made a condition precedent to political preferment. 

As a salutary precaution against domestic insurrections and other sudden 
dangers, each white male inhabitant of the province "from the ages of sixteen 
years aud upwards" was, by an act assented to on the 28th of July, 1757, re- 
quired to carry with him "on Sabbath days, fasts and festivals," to the place 
of public worship within the town or district where he resided, "one good gun, 
or pair of pistols, with at least six charges of gunpowder and ball." 

The French observed, with jealous eye, the expansion of the English set- 
tlements along the line of the Savannah River, and the increasing influence 
which the colonists were gaining over the affections and the trade of the In- 
dian nations. They hesitated at nothing which might tend to interrupt this 
advancing prosperity and alienate the good will of the natives. Emissaries, 
equipped with presents and malignant tongues, were sent among them to poi- 
son their minds against the English, to disturb existing friendly relations, and, 
if possible, to incite the savages to acts of open hostility. The effect of these 
efforts became perceptible in the changed temper and morose conduct of the 
Indians. At no point was this modification of amicable word and act so appar- 
ent as at Augusta. Sharing in the apprehension of impending danger, and 
alarmed at the defenseless state of the town, the inhabitants of Augusta ad- 
dressed the following communication to Governor Reynolds : 

" Augusta, 30th of August, 1756. To his excellency, John Reynolds, esq., 
captain-general and commander-in-chief in and over his majesty's Province of 
Georgia, and vice-admiral of the same. 

" The humble representation and petition of the inhabitants of Augusta and 
the places adjacent, showeth : 

" That your petitioners by their vicinity to, and connection with Indians 
and Indian affairs, have had the opportunity to behold with concern the great 
progress the French have made for some time past in seducing the Creek In- 
dians and drawing them over to their interest. These people are indefatiga- 
ble in persuading and spurring on the Indians to a rupture with us, and had, 
within these few months, according to the best intelligence we could get, and 
from the behavior of the Indians in general, very nearly succeeded, and even 
with the concurrence of a part of the Cherokees. 

"That although we believe they have miscarried just at this present junct- 
ure, yet we have good reason to think, if some effectual methods are not taken 
to prevent it, they will very soon bring their designs to bear. That Augusta 



40 History of Augusta. 



and the places adjacent being not only frontiers, but places where the stores 
and trading goods for all the Chickasaws, Creeks, and a part of the Cherokees 
are kept, are of the greatest consequence, for in all probability tliey would, for 
the sake of the stores, be the first that would be attacked, as they, the Indians, 
would thereby be enabled, with a little assistance from the French, to carry on 
a war with the English for a considerable time. 

" That in our present helpless, defenseless condition, these places and stores, 
we are morally certain, would fall too easy a prey to them. That it is well 
known that Fort Augusta was erected here for the sake of the Indian trade, 
and the protection of those who should carry it on, and might also be a pro- 
tection to the inhabitants that might afterwards come and settle in the north- 
west division of the province, by being an asylum for the women and children, 
and a place of security for their effects in case of danger. That that fort, at 
present, cannot answer any of those wise and salutary ends, being in every 
part of it in a ruinous condition, for the truth ©f which we can appeal to your 
excellency, who had occular demonstration thereof when your excellency was 
up here ; but ever since that time it is much decayed, and would have fallen to 
the ground had it not been supported by the care of the commanding officer. 
That was the fort in proper repair, it would not answer the ends proposed ; 
the few soldiers that had been for a long time at that station, which, by re- 
peated detachments to South Carolina and elsewhere are now rendered fewer, 
being insufficient for its defense in case of an attack. 

" That if this place was destroyed, the destruction of the whole province 
would, in all probability, soon follow ; for, as we hinted before, the Indians 
would get arms and ammunition and other necessaries here, enough to enable 
them to carry on the war when and how long they pleased. 

"That although we have been informed that )-our excellency hath before 
now laid before his majesty the defenceless state of this province, and the ruin- 
ous condition of the fortifications in it, and we are sensible no person could 
take more pains to know it than your excellency, yet we hope this representa- 
tion of our particular situation, especially in time of war with France, and, as 
we have good reason to think, of immediate danger, will not be taken amiss. 

" That we also, with submission, beg leave to observe to your excellency 
that we sincerely wish there had been no settlement made on Ogeechee as yet, 
for if ever the Creeks should break out in war with us, whatever reasons they 
in their own minds might have for it, we are assured they will make that set- 
tlement one pretense, for they are continually exclaiming against it, and more 
so this summer than ever. We wish there could be a method taken of with- 
drawing the settlement by degrees, so it might not look like a public conces- 
sion of these lands. The Indians would then, at least, want that pretense of 
quarrelling. 

"We therefore hope your excellency will take this our representation and 



An Indian War Averted. 41 

petition into your serious consideration, and we cannot doubt your excellency 
will do everything in your power to remedy these evils, and to render our 
safety and protection more effectual ; but if nothing can be done here for the 
public security of these parts, we humbly beseech your excellency to repre- 
sent our situation to his majesty, from whose fatherly care we may yet, before 
it is too late, receive the assistance necessarily required. 

" And your excellency's petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, etc." 

This petition was signed by Patrick Clarke, John Rae, Isaac Barksdale, 
William Bonar, Daniel Clark, Edward Barnard, William Clement, Richard 
Johnson, Da Douglass, Martin Campbell, Lachlan McGillivray, John Williams, 
John Spencer, William Little, James McHenry, George Galphin, Robert Dixon, 
and Moses Nunes. 

David Douglass, who was charged with the transmission of the foregoing 
representation and petition, in forwarding the documeat deemed it proper to 
supplement its statements and requests with this communication : 

" We have sent you the inclosed representation that your excellency may 
see the sentiments of the people of this place before this unlucky affair hap- 
pened. 

" I have, as in duty bound, sent you the enclosed information, by which, 
in all appearances, an Indian war is inevitable. There is nothing, in all human 
probability, can prevent it but having those people who did the injury to make 
a retaliation for the murdered Indians, and we have accordingly issued htie 
.and cry, and sent out parties to apprehend them, and we have alarmed all the 
country, both on the Carolina and Georgia side. The head men of the Chick- 
asaws are now with me. They declare they will live and die with the white 
people, provided we will give them a place for their wives and children. The 
fort is too small, neither is it in a condition to hold the people of this place, so 
I think it will be better to have one or two fortifications or intrenchments as 
near the fort as possible, where the women and children may be secured, while 
we scout out and fight the enemy. 

" I am afraid we cannot keep this place without assistance, and the loss of 
this will be an immense destruction to both provinces, as there is no people in 
this province to spare to send to our assistance. I hope your excellency will 
immediately apply to the government of South Carolina, who are equally con- 
cerned, to send an immediate supply of men, or otherwise as you think most 
proper, as I only hint my hasty thoughts, which, if not right, I beg your ex- 
cellency would excuse. I hope your excellency will, by this express, give me 
what power and instructions you think needful. If possible, we will immedi- 
ately send to the Creek nation to assure the Indians that those people who did 
the injury will be taken and secured for their satisfaction. We are afraid the 
blow will be struck in the nation." 

Matters still maintaining a threatening attitude, ana all efforts to apprehend 

6 



42 History of Augusta. 



tbe fugitive whites who, by their violence, had offended and outraged the 
Indians, having thus far proved fruitless, Governor Reynolds laid before his 
council the following communication which had just been received: 

" Augusta, Saturday lo of the Clock in 
"the Morning, I2th September 1756. 
" May it please your Excellency : 

" We have, as in duty bound, sent this express on purpose, with the in- 
closed informations by which you will understand that Indian blood has been 
spilt, and consequently an Indian War is almost inevitable. The only thing 
in all probability that can prevent it is the having of the murderers secured for 
to make him satisfection : for which reason we issued /me ajid crys everywhere 
to apprehend them : and in case they come by the way of Savannah, we hope 
care will be taken to secure them. We are afraid we cannot hold this place 
long without speedy assistance, which we hope your Excellency will take 
into serious consideration. All the settlements on the Ogeechee are aban- 
doned. The fort cannot contain all the inhabitants, so that we shall be obliged 
to fortify some other places. Wc beg your Excellency would send us instruc- 
tions how to act as you shall think proper. There are some head-men of the 
Creeks in Charles Town, or on their way thither — on whom we have had great 
dependence, as we designed to assure them that we will take and do justice on 
the murderers, and give them all the satisfaction they required. We wish we 
could hear from your Excellency before they go from this place, for which 
reason we hope your Excellency will dispatch the express with all haste pos- 
sible. There is no match in the fort. Mr. begs, if there is any such 

thing in Savannah, that you will send him some. And we are, with the great- 
est respect, 

" Your Excellency's most humble, most obedient Servants, 

" D. A. Douglass, 

"John Rae, 

" Martin Campbell." 

The guilty whites having been finally apprehended and brought to justice^ 
the wrath of the Indians having thus been appeased, and their head men hav- 
ing been placated by a liberal supply of such articles as they coveted, a paci- 
fication ensued to the joy and relief of the inhabitants of Augusta who had 
been sorely exercised by the late hostile temper and the recent threats of their 
red neighbors. Although anxious to respond to the requisition, Governor 
Reynolds found himself powerless to supply the needs and enlarge the protec- 
tive abilities of Fort Augusta. 



Condition of the Colony in 1760. 43 



CHAPTE.R IV. 

Condition of tlie Colony of Georgia in 1760 — Congress at Augusta in November, 1763 — 
Treaty with the Indians then Solemnized — Instructions to Indian Traders — Strength of Ad- 
jacent Indian Nations in 1768 — Augusta's Representation in the Provincial Congress — Con- 
gress at Augusta in June, 1773 — The Ceded Lands — Adjustment of the Claims of the Indian 
Traders — Trouble with the Indians — Silver Bluff. 

UPON the inauguration of Governor Wright, in 1760, the population of 
Georgia amounted to barely six thousand inhabitants. The returns 
showed that there were then three thousand five hundred and seventy-eight 
negro slaves owned and employed within the province. The military force of 
the colony consisted of sixty men belonging to his majesty's independent com- 
panies, of two troops of rangers, each numbering five officers and seventy pri- 
vates, and of the militia, organized as infantry and aggregating one thousand 
and twenty- five. But thirty-four hundred pounds of rice were exported in that 
year, and the entire commerce of the colony was conducted by forty-two ves- 
sels, most of them of light burthen. Scarcely anything was manufactured at 
home ; all needed supplies coming from abroad, and especially from Great 
Britain. Some of the poorer and more industrious class wove a coarse, home- 
spun cloth, and knit cotton and yarn stockings for domestic use. Here and 
there a tanner or a shoemaker plied his trade, and there was no lack of black- 
smiths. Occasionally a ship, a snow, a brigantine, or a schooner was built for 
the coasting trade. The "whole time and strength" of the colonists, as Sir 
James Wright reports to the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, 
are "applied in planting rice, corn, peas, and a small quantity of wheat and 
rye, and in making pitch, tar and turpentine, and in making shingles and staves, 
and sawing lumber and scantling and boards of every kind, and in raising 
stocks of cattle, mules, horses and hogs." 

By royal proclamation, dated at St. James, October 7, 1763, his majesty, 
George III., from the extensive and valuable acquisitions in America secured to 
his crown by the definitive treaty of peace concluded at Paris on the loth of 
February in the same year annexed to the Province of Georgia all lands lying 
between the rivers Alatamaha and St. Mary. The separate governments of 
East and West Florida were then organized, and the northern boundary of the 
two Floridas constituted the southern boundary of Georgia as far as the Mis- 
sissippi River. 

Thus did Georgia cease to be a frontier colony. Relieved from those anx- 
ieties so long entertained by reason of her proximity to Spanish rule at St. 
Augustine and Pensacola, and no more exposed to the annoyances of French 
intrigue and jealousies emanating from Mobile and the Alabama fort, the pro- 
vince entered upon a career of security and assured prosperity. Her southern 



44 History of Augusta. 



and western boundaries, formerly threatened by enemies, were now but divid- 
ing lines separating plantations with kindred interests and acknowledging a 
common allegiance. The change was pleasing and restful, and the effect upon 
the colony most salutary. , 

The native population, however, remained, and it became necessary to ac- 
quaint the Indians with the change which had occurred, and to adopt measures 
for the perpetuation of the amicable relations existing between them and the 
British crown. To that end the Earl of Egremont, the principal secretary of 
State for the Southern Department, at the instance of the king, addressed com- 
munications to the governors of the Provinces of Virginia, North and South 
Carolina and Georgia, directing them, in association with Captain Stuart, the 
superintendent of Indian affairs, to convene a congress of the Creeks, Chero- 
kees, Catawbas, Chickasaws and Choctaws at Augusta, or in such other central 
point as might be deemed most convenient. 

After some discussion, and upon the suggestion of Governor Wright in- 
dorsed by Mr. Stuart, Augusta was selected as the locality most suitable for the 
convocation. The congress was opened with due formality at the King's Fort, 
in that town, on Saturday, November 5, 1763. There were present on the 
part of the English, Governor James Wright, of Georgia, Governor Thomas 
Boone, of South Carolina, Governor Arthur Dobbs, of North Carolina, Lieu- 
tenant-Governor Francis Fauquier, of Virginia, and John Stuart, esq., superin- 
tendent of India-n affairs in the Southern Department. Seven hundred Indians 
were in attendance. James Colbert acted as interpreter for the Chickasaws and 
Choctaws. John Butler, James Beamor and John Watts interpreted for the 
Cherokees, and Stephen Forest and John Proctor for the Creeks. Colonel 
Ayers. the Catawba chief, interpreted for his nation. 

The Upper and Lower Chickasaws were represented by the following chiefs: 
Hopayamatahah, Poucherimatahah, Houpastubah, Pianiatah, Hopayamingo, 
Houratimatahah, Hopayamingo (Jockey's son), and twenty warriors. The 
chiefs, Red- Shoes and Chappahomah, represented the Choctaws. 

The Upper and Lower Creeks were present in the persons of their chiefs,. 
Captain Aleck, Sympoyaffee. Bohotcher, Sausechaw. Boysonecka, Hillibeesun- 
aga, Firmicho, Poyhucher, Poyhuchee, and their followers. 

Of the Cherokees, fifteen chiefs appeared, representing the Settlements over 
the Hills, the Middle Settlements, and the Lower Towns. The Over Hill chiefs 
were AttakullakuUa, Ousteneka, Prince of Chotih, Willanawah, Onatoi, Ski- 
agusta of Chotih, and Moitoi. Those from the Lower Towns were Tiftowih of 
Keehowee, the Wolf, Houkonata, Man Killer of Keehowee, Good Warrior of 
Estatowih, Young Warrior of the same place, and the Warrior of Tuscoweh. 
Will, the head man of Whatogah, led the delegation from the Middle Settle- 
ment. The Catawbas were represented by their chief. Colonel Ayers, and 
some followers. 



Treaty with the Indians. 45, 

The conference occurring within the limits of Georgia was opened by Gov- 
ernor Wright. Observing that the day was fair, and indulging in the hope that 
all the talks would not prove otherwise, he invited the Indians to heed the ut- 
terances of Mr. Stuart, as he had been selected by the governors present to 
give expression to their united sentiments. 

Thus commended, Mr. Stuart, addressing the assembled Indians as friends 
and brothers, assured them that he spake by command of the great King 
George, who, under God, the Master and Giver of breath, was the common 
father and protector both of the English and of the red men; that no conference 
was ever intended to be more general or more friendly; that, provoked at the 
repeated cruelties, insults, and falsehoods of the French and Spaniards, the king 
of England had put forth his strength and defeated both his perfidious enemies; 
that in order to prevent a recurrence of former disturbances, his majesty in- 
sisted upon the removal of tlie French and Spaniards beyond the Mississippi ; 
that all cause of trouble being now at an end, he hoped the Indians and Eng- 
lish would dwell together in peace and brotherly friendship ; " that all past 
offenses should be buried in oblivion and forgiveness ;" that the English were 
prepared to deal fairly, and to supply the Indian nations with everything they 
might require ; and that the forts recently surrendered by the French would be 
used for the assistance and protection of the natives, and for the convenience 
of a trade, which, it was believed, would prove mutually beneficial. "The white 
people," he said in conclusion, " value themselves on speaking truth ; but to 
give still greater weight to what we say, the great king has thought proper 
that his four governors and the superintendent from a great distance should 
utter the same words at the same time ; and, to remove every umbrage or jeal- 
ousy, that you should all hear them in presence of one another, and bear testi- 
mony for one another in case we should ever act contrary to our declarations." 

The responses of the chiefs and various rejoinders occupied the attention of 
the congress until the loth of November, when the following treaty was form- 
ally ratified by all parties present: 

" Article I. That a perfect and perpetual peace and sincere friendship shall 
be continued between his majesty. King George the Third, and all his subjects, 
and the several nations and tribes of Indians herein mentioned, that is to say, 
the Chicasahs, Upper and Lower Creeks, Chactahs, Cherokees, and Catawbas; 
and each nation of Indians hereby respectively engages to give the utmost at- 
tention to preserve and maintain peace and friendship between their people 
and the king of Great Britain and his subjects and shall not commit or permit 
any kind of hostilities, injury, or damage whatever, against them from hence- 
forth, and for any cause, or under any pretense whatever. And for laying the 
strongest and purest foundation for a perfect and perpetual peace and friend- 
ship, his most sacred majesty has been graciously pleased to pardon and for- 
give all past offenses and injuries, and hereby declares there shall be a general 



46 History of Augusta. 



oblivion of all crimes, ofifenses and injuries that may have been heretofore com- 
mitted or done by any of the said Indian parties. 

" Article II. The subjects of the great King George and the aforesaid sev- 
eral nations of Indians shall, forever hereafter, be looked upon as one people. 
And the several governors and superintendent engage that they will encourage 
persons to furnish and supply the several nations and tribes of Indians afore- 
said with all sorts of goods usually carried amongst them, in the manner which 
they now are. and which will be sufficient to answer all their wants. In con- 
sideration whereof, the Indian parties on their part, severally engage in the 
most solemn manner that the traders and others who may go amongst them 
shall be perfectly safe and secure in their several persons and effects, and shall 
not on any account, or pretense whatever, be molested or disturbed whilst in 
any of the Indian towns or nations, or on their journey to or from the nations. 

" Article III. The English governors and superintendent engage for them - 
selves and their successors, as far as they can, that they will always give 
due attention to the interest of the Indians, and will be ready on all occasions 
to do them full and ample justice. And the several Indian parties do ex- 
pressly promise and engage for themselves severally, and for their several na- 
tions and tribes, pursuant to the full right and power which they have so to do, 
that they will in all cases, and upon all occasions, do full and ample justice to 
the English; and will use their utmost endeavors to prevent any of their people 
from giving any disturbance, or doing any damage to them in the settlements 
or elsewhere as aforesaid, either by stealing their horses, killing their cattle, or 
otherwise, or by doing them any personal hurt or injury; and that if any dam- 
age be done, as aforesaid, satisfaction shall be made to the party injured ; and 
that if any Indian, or Indians, whatever, shall hereafter murder or kill a white 
man, the offender or offenders, shall, without any delay, excuse, or pretense 
whatever, be immediately put to death in a public manner in the presence of 
at least two of the English who may be in the neighborhood where the offense 
is committed. 

" And if any white man shall kill or murder an Indian, such white man 
shall be tried for the offense in the same manner as if he had murdered a white 
man, and, if found guilty, shall be executed accordingly in the presence of 
some of the relations of the Indian who may be murdered, if they choose to 
be present. 

" Article IV. Whereas doubts and disputes have frequently happened on 
account of encroachments, or supposed encroachments committed by the Eng- 
lish inhabitants of Georgia on the lands or hunting grounds reserved and 
claimed by the Creek Indians for their own use: Wherefore, to prevent any 
mistakes, doubts, or disputes for the future, and in consideration of the great 
marks of clemency and friendship extended to us the said Creek Indian, we, 
the kings. Head Men and Warriors of the several nations and towns of both Up- 



Treaty with the Indians. 47 



per and Lower Creeks, by virtue and in pursuance of the full right and power 
which we now have and are possessed of, have consented and agreed that, for 
the future, the boundary between the Enghsh settlements and our lands and 
hunting grounds shall be known and settled by a line extending up Savannah 
River to Little River and back to the fork of Little River, and from the fork 
of Little River to the ends of the south branch of Briar Creek, and down that 
branch to the Lower Creek path, and along the Lower Creek path to the main 
stream of Ogeechie River, and down the main stream of that river just below 
the path leading from Mount Pleasant, and from thence in a straight line cross 
to Sancta Sevilla on the Alatamaha River, and from thence to the southward 
as far as Georgia extends, or may be extended, to remain to be regulated 
agreeable to former treaties and his majesty's royal instruction, a copy of which 
was lately sent to you. 

" And we, the Catawba Head Men and Warriors, in confirmation of an 
agreement heretofore entered into with the white people, declare that we will 
remain satisfied with the tract of land of fifteen miles square, a survey of 
which, by our consent, and at our request, has been already begun; and the 
respective Governors and Superintendent, on their parts, promise and engage 
that the aforesaid survey shall be completed, and that the Catawbas shall not, 
in any respect, be molested by any of the King's subjects, within the said lines, 
but shall be indulged in the usual manner of hunting elsewhere. 

" And we do by these presents give, grant, and confirm unto his most 
sacred majesty. King George the Third, all such lands whatsoever as we, the 
said Creek Indians, have at any time heretofore been possessed of, or claimed 
as our hunting grounds, which lye between the sea, the River Savannah, and 
the lines hereinbefore mentioned and described, to hold the same unto the 
great King George and his successors forever. And we do fully and absolutely 
agree that from henceforth the above lines and boundary shall be the mark of 
division of lands between the English and the Creek Indians, notwithstanding 
any former agreement or boundary to the contrary ; and that we will not dis- 
turb the English in their settlements or otherwise within the lines aforesaid. 

" In consideration whereof it is agreed on the part of his majesty. King 
George, that none of his subjects shall settle upon or disturb the Indians in the 
grounds or lands to the westward of the lines hereinbefore described; and 
that if any shall presume to do so, then, on complaint made by the Indians, 
the party shall be proceeded against for the same, and punished according to 
the laws of the English." ^ 

The following day liberal presents were distributed by Mr. Stuart to all the 
assembled Indians. The four governors united in an explanatory letter to the 

^ See Journal of the Congress of the four SoutherJt Governors and the Superitttendent of 
that District with the five Nations of Indians at Augusta, 1763, pp. 1-45. South Carolina, 
Charles-Town. Printed by Peter Timothy. MDCCLXiv. • 



48 History of Augusta. 

Earl of Egremont, advising him of the satisfactory manner in which the king's 
commands, as signified in his lordship's communication of the i6th of March, 
had been obeyed, and suggesting the estabUshment of commercial relations 
with the Indians upon a general, safe, and equitable footing. 

In transmitting a copy of this treaty to the board of trade. Governor 
Wright, on the 23d of December, assures the Lords Commissioners that this 
accession of territory from the Indians will encourage the incoming of many set- 
tlers and promote the prosperity of Georgia. In this expectation he was not 
disappointed. 

In order that the promises contained in this treaty respecting fair dealing 
with the Indian nations might be duly observed by the licensed traders, Gov- 
ernor Wright deemed it proper to promulgate and enforce certain stringent 
regulations. As they specially affected the population of Augusta, which 
-was still largely engaged in traffic with the natives, a synopsis of them will be 
regarded as pertinent. 

Every trader was so to conduct himself that " no offense be given to the 
Christian religion." All horses, hogs, and cattle, accompanying the trader 
were to be carefully guarded, in order that no damage should be done by them 
to the growing crops of the natives. It was expressly forbidden to compel an 
Indian, either by threats or force, to perform any labor, to carry any pack or 
burthen, or to buy or sell contrary to his will or inclination. 

The trader was not allowed to receive any present, gift, fee or reward from 
an Indian, or to credit any member of the community to a greater extent 
than one pound of powder and four pounds of bullets. The savages were to 
be informed that they were relieved from all obligation to pay debts previously 
-contracted. No arms, ammunition, or goods were to be sold to Indians ac- 
knowledging allegiance to the crowns of France and Spain. Traffic in swan- 
shot was prohibited. Any information acquired touching the movements or 
designs of the French and Spaniards was to be promptly and faithfully com- 
municated- It was not permitted to a trader, without special permission from 
the governor, to bring an Indian within the limits of the white settlements. 
Persons found trading with the natives without license were to be immediately 
reported . Matters relating to the affairs and government of the province could 
not form subjects of conversation with the natives, and the servants of traders 
were forbidden to traffic with the Indians. No servant could remain in the 
Indian Territory; and if any person in the employment of the trader com- 
mitted a capital offense, it was made the duty of the trader to take him before 
a magistrate for trial and punishment. Upon the renewal of his license each 
trader was required to submit a statement of all skins and effects purchased 
from the Indians, and of all goods sold or left at his trading-post. It was also 
incumbent upon him to hand in a journal of all proceedings during his sojourn 
in the Indian country. No free Indian, negro, or slave could, without special 



Strength of Adjacent Indian Nations in 1768. 49 

leave, be employed to assist the irader in the prosecution of his calling, or in 
rowing his boats from any garrison into the red man's territory. Rawhides 
could not be accepted in exchange for goods. The sale of rum, spirituous 
liquors, and " rifled barrelled guns," was absolutely prohibited. 

With the exception of an occasional murder, resulting from som^ personal 
quarrel, or committed under the influence of strong drink, the intercourse' be- 
tween the colonists and the Indians was for many years amicable and satisfac- 
tory. This happy state of affairs was largely due to the watchfulness, wisdom, 
and liberality of Governor Wright, who held the traders to strict accountability 
and, by apt interviews with the influential chiefs of the Creeks and the 
Cherokees, and by generous presents, inculcated and maintained friendly 
relations. 

In pursuance of writs of election, issued by Governor Wright in 1 76 1, the 
town of Augusta and parish of St. Paul sent up the following representatives : 

Edward Barnard, John Graham, Williams, and L. McGillivray. No 

longer subjected to menaces at the hands of Spaniards and French, at peace 
with the Indian nations, permitted to purchase and employ slaves in the culti- 
vation of the soil, enjoying a fee simple title to lands, encouraged by the ex- 
ample and experience of a wise and energetic governor, the inhabitants of 
Georgia took fresh courage in the development of the plantation ; and, from 
this time forward, the progress of the colonization was satisfactory and unin- 
terrupted. 

In the excitement which violently agitated Savannah when the authorities 
attempted, within her limits, to enforce the provisions of the stamp act of 1765, 
the citizens of Augusta did not share except to a limited extent. They were 
too far removed from the scene of operations, and had but small practical in- 
terest in the question and the rights involved. 

In 1767 depredations were committed by a party of Creek Indians, who 
had lately formed a settlement on the Oconee River, upon the plantations on 
Little River. Some horses were captured. Pursued by five of the inhabitants, 
the Indians fled until they regained their homes where, reinforced by their 
companions, they turned upon their assailants and compelled them to beat a 
hasty retreat. This was not the first time the Creeks had invaded this region 
and plundered its plantations. Responding to the emergency, Governor 
Wright, on the 24th of August, prepared a talk to the (^reek nation in which 
he demanded the return of the stolen animals, insisted upon a recall of the 
marauding bands, and cautioned an observance of the boundary- line stipula- 
tions as agreed upon by the Augusta Congress. The town of Augusta now 
contained some eighty houses, a church, and two wooden forts. ^ Plantations 
were multiplying to the north as far as Little River. 

Of the warlike strength of the Indian n.itions lying adjacent to, and hold- 



' See Gentleman's Magazine for 1767, p; 167. 



50 History of Augusta. 



ing commerce with Georgia, the following estimate was submitted by Gov- 
ernor Wright to the Earl of Hillsborough, on the 5tli of October, 1768: 

Gun Men. 

Upper and Lower Creeks 3.400 

Chactaws 2,200 

Chickesas 400 

Cherokees 2,000 

Catavvbas 40 

Total 8,040 

In this number are not included those whose trade relations were carried 
on with South Carolina and with East and West Florida. When we remem- 
ber the defenseless condition of the province, and its unguarded frontier, and 
when we recall the fact that the Indian Territory was frequented by traders-^ 
some of whom were supercilious, dishonest and tyrannical — we are astonished 
that these primitive peoples exhibited such tolerance towards a race which was 
surely supplanting them in the occupancy of their native wilds. 

In the recalcitrant Assembly which was finally dissolved by Governor 
Habersham in 1772, Augusta was represented by Edward Barnard, Alexan- 
der Inglis, and Thomas Shruder. While the governor was loyally seeking to 
carry out the instructions of the king and to enforce the acts of Parliament, 
the Provincial Assembly, under the leadership of Dr. Noble Wymberley Jones, 
who has been appropriately styled the " morning star " of the revolution in 
Georgia, was in active sympathy with all who esteemed taxation without rep- 
resentation as unauthorized, and jealously maintained what they regarded as 
the reserved rights of the colonists and the privileges of provincial legislatures. 

For some time the Cherokees had been increasing their indebtedness to the 
traders. Each year they became less able to discharge their accumulating 
obligations. The Creeks were in a similar situation. The traders clamored for 
payment, and the Indians offered to make a cession of lands in settlement of 
their debts. Various negotiations and talks ensued in regard to the matter, 
which was finally adjusted at a congress held in Augusta on the 1st of June, 
1773. Georgia was represented by her governor. Sir James Wright, and the 
Cherokees and Creeks appeared in the persons of several chiefs who were 
empowered to bind their respective nations. The Hon. John Stuart, his 
majesty's sole agent and superintendent of Indian affairs in the southern dis- 
trict of North America, was also present. 

By the cession then made Georgia acquired additional territory embracing 
over two millions of acres of land, most of it well watered, and adapted to the 
cultivation of indigo, cotton, tobacco, corn, wheat, etc. Wilkes, Lincoln, Tal- 
iaferro, Greene, Oglethorpe, Elbert, and other counties were subsequently 
carved out of it. Goodly was the region and offering inany attractions to 
immigrants. The aggregate indebtedness existing on the part of the Indians 



Cession of Indian Lands. 51 

to the tra ers was estimated at from ^^"40,000 to ;^50,ooo. Simultaneously 
with the fo mal execution of this cession and treaty, the Indian traders hold- 
ing claims against the Indians submitted releases by which, in consideration 
of the surrender of this territory to his majesty, and in anticipation of receiving 
partial or entire payment of the debts due to them by the Creeks and Cher- 
okees from the moneys to be realized upon the sale of these lands, they ab- 
solutely acquitted and discharged the Indians from all demands. Prominent 
among those signing these releases were George Galpin, James Jackson & Co.,' 
Martin Campbell & S^n, Woodgion, Rae. Whitefield & Co., Edward Barnard, 
Waters, James Grierson, James Spalding & Co , and Edward Keating. 

In order to engage the attention of the public and to attract settlers for 
this newly acquired and fertile domain, his excellency, on the iith of June, 
1773, issued a proclamation in which, after describing the cession and making 
known the fact that surveyors were actually engaged in running out and mark- 
ing the boundaries, he states that the territory would " be parceled out in 
tracts varying from 100 to 1,000 acres the better to accommodate the buyers "; 
that in conformity to his majesty's instructions " one hundred acres would be 
sold to the master or head of a family, fifty acres additional for the wife and 
each child, and the same number of acres for each slave owned and brought in 
by the purchaser "; that in "further encouragement of the settling of the said 
lands the masters or heads of families will be allowed to purchase 50 acres for 
each able bodied white servant man they shall bring in to settle thereon," and 
also "25 acres for every woman servant from the age of 15 years to 40 years "; 
that all persons were at liberty to come into the province and view these lands^ 
and, as soon as they were surveyed, to make choice of such of them as they 
desired to purchase and settle upon ; that grants would be executed on the 
most moderate terms, and that for a period of ten years the parcels purchased 
would be exempt from the payment of quit rents ; that the lands offered were 
"in general of the most fertile quality and fit for the production of wheat, indico, 
Indian corn, tobacco, hemp, flax, etc., etc., etc. ;" that they comprised "a pleas- 
ant and very healthy part of the province"; that they were "extremely well wat- 
ered by Savannah River, Ogechee River, Little River, and Broad River, and by 
a great number of creeks and branches which ran throughout the whole country 
and emptied themselves into the aforesaid rivers ; that there was an abundance 
of springs, and that the water was very fine ; that Little River, where the 
ceded lands began, was but t\venty-two miles above the town of Augusta ; 
that at this place ready market would always be found for all produce and 
stock ; that if Savannah was preferred as a point for trade there was easy trans- 
portation down the Savannah River, while a good wagon road led from Little 
River to that commercial metropolis of the province ; that a fort would speed- 
ily be built and garrisoned within the ceded lands for the protection of the 
immigrants, and that all vagrants and disorderly persons would be promptly 



52 History of Augusta. 



and severely dealt with ; and finally, that these lands adjoined a well-settled 
part of the province, where law, justice, and good government obtained. 

A plan of settlement was carefully arranged, and Colonel Bartlett and 
Messrs. Young, Holland, and Maddox were appointed commissioners and 
vested with ample powers to negotiate sales. They were authorized to place 
a valuation upon each tract according to its quality. Not more than five shil- 
lings per acre were to be charged in any event, and five pounds sterling were 
to be paid as entrance money for every hundred acres. To facilitate the busi- 
ness, land courts were opened in Savannah, in Augusta, and at the confluence 
of Broad and Savannah rivers. At this last named locality Captain Waters and 
his company were stationed. Here Fort James was builded. Its stockade was 
an acre in extent. Within this inclosure were officers' quarters and barracks for 
the garrison, consisting of fifty rangers, well mounted, and armed each with 
a rifle, two dragoon pistols, a hanger, a powder-horn, a shot-pouch, and a toma- 
hawk. ^ In each angle of this square stockade was erected a block-house in 
which swivel guns were posted. These structures rose one story ;;bove the cur- 
tains, which were pierced for small arms. The stockade crowned a gentle emi- 
nence in the fork of the Savannah and Broad, equi-distant from those rivers and 
from the extreme point of land formed by their junction. On the peninsula 
above the tort was located the town called Dartmouth in honor of the earl 
whose influence had been exerted in persuading his majesty to favor the cession 
of this recently acquired territory. After a short and by no means robust 
existence Dartmouth gave place to Petersburg, which, during the tobacco cul- 
ture in Georgia, attracted to itself a considerable population, and was re- 
garded as a place of no little commercial importance.'' 

Settlements were rapidly formed on the Ogeechee and north of Little River, 
and the ceded lands were eagerly sought after. The Quakers who, through 
fear of the Indians, had abandoned their homes in the southern portion of what 
is now Columbia county, returned and diligently resumed their agricultural 
operations. The outlook for the speedy population of this new domain was 
most encouraging when the pleasing prospect wa>i suddenly enveloped in doubt 
and disister by the unexpected hostility of the Creeks. 

In January, 1774, a party of Lower Creek Indians wantonly attacked Sher- 
rall's fortified settlement, in which were five white and three negro men and 
twelve women and children. Approaching stealthily, the Indians fired upon 
the men who were at work Upon the fort. Sherrall and two others fell. The 
rest retreated into the houses where, encouraged by the valor of a negro who 
rushed upon an Indian and shot him through the head, they entered upon a 
vigorous defense. Thrice did the savages set fire to the structures, and as 



' Bartrani's Fravdls through North and South Carolina. Georgia, etc., pp. 321, 322. 
London. 1792. 

"^ Dead lowns of Georgia, pp. 233. 234. Charles C. Jones, jr. Savannah. 1878. 



Trouble with the Indians. 53 

•often were the flames extinguished. Two of the neighbors, attracted by the 
firing, approached. Discovered by the Indians they were pursued. Succeed- 
ing, however, in making their escape, they notified Captain Barnard of the 
afifair. Hastily collecting about forty men, he advanced to the relief of the 
besieged and, attacking the Indians in the rear, drove them into the swamp. 
Seven persons had been killed and five wounded within the fort. Of the In- 
dians it is known that five were slain. Their wounded was carried ofT by their 
companions. 

A few days afterwards a skirmish occurred between twenty-five white set- 
tlers and one hundred and fifty Indians. Grant, Weatherford, Hammond, 
and Ayres were killed, and a fifth white man was wounded who died the next 
day at Wrightsboro. Several private forts and dwellings, which had been pre- 
cipitately abandoned by their owners, were reduced to ashes by the savacjes. 
Collecting some men. Captain Few and Lieutenants Williams and Bishop 
buried the bodies of those who had fallen in the recent action. Lieutenant 
Samuel Alexander, with a few militia, attacked and dispersed a party of In- 
dians who had become separated from the main body. Two of the Creeks 
were killed. For having thus, without authority, punished these Indians, 
Alexander was rebuked by Colonel Rae, an agent of Indian affairs. Apprised 
of the circumstances, however, Rae justified Alexander's conduct, and ex- 
pressed the opinion that when the chiefs of the nation should be made ac- 
quainted with the entire transaction they would note the provocation and 
acquiesce in the propriety of the retaliation. 

This sudden and disastrous invasion of the recently settled district caused 
general alarm and distrust. Many letreated to places of security. Forts were 
constructed on Savannah and Little Rivers, and in them were deposited women 
and children, and personal property of special value. In cultivating their farms 
the husbandmen banded together for mutual protection. 

By a messenger dispatched by Mr. George Galphin, a principal agent for 
Indian affairs and a trader high in the confidence both of the colonists and of 
the savages, to ascert lin from the chiefs of the Lower Creeks whether they 
were inclined to peace or war, and to demand an explanation of the recent 
outrages, answer was returned that the incursion was unauthorized and that 
the disposition of the Creeks toward the inhabitants of Georgia was pacific. 

Big Elk, the leader of the Creeks who attacked Sherrall's fort, finding that 
his nation was averse to entering upon a war with the English, invited the 
Cherokees to join him in an invasion of Georgia. This the Cherokees declined 
to do. On his way home that chief and his party killed and scalped three 
white men. 

About the last of March, Head Turkey, ^ a leading mico of the Upper 
Creeks, accompanied by two chiefs and an Indian trader, visited the Lower 

' Called also Mad Turkey. 



54 History of Augusta. 



Creek towns to prevail upon the inhabitants to make peace with the Georgians. 
It was consented that he should wait upon Governor Wright and submit over- 
tures. On his way to Savannah he was murdered in Augusta by Thomas 
Fee, who sought revenge for a kinsman of his who, on the northern frontier, 
had been butchered by the Indians. This lawless act produced a profound 
sensation and stirred the hearts of the savages to wrath and vengeance. Fee 
fled into South Carolina and there sought protection. A reward of ;^ lOO ster- 
ling was offered by Sir James Wright for his apprehension. He was arrested 
and lodged in the prison-house at Ninety-Six. While there detained, an armed 
pa'rty came in the night-time, forced the jail, and set him at liberty. 

Learning that Fee had been apprehended, and that he was in confinement, 
several of the Creek chiefs came to Savannah to witness his execution. Griev- 
ous was their displeasure when they ascertained that he had been forcibly 
released. When assured that Governor Wright's proclamation was still oper- 
ative, that the governor of South Carolina had offered a further reward of ;^200 
for bis arrest, and that there was good reason to believe he would yet be 
brought to punishment for his crime, their wrath was measurably appeased. 
The governor then stated to the chiefs that within four months fifteen of his 
people had, without any provocation, been slain by the Creeks, and that eleven 
of the South Carolinians had, in like manner, been slaughtered on Long Cane. 
He thereupon demanded of them the blood of the Indians who had murdered 
these innocent colonists, and questioned the propriety of their asking that jus- 
tice which they failed to accord. He assured them that the king of England, 
if he made a requisition for it, would send him a military force capable of 
exterminating the whole Indian nation, and that his amicable disposition and 
forbearance were proof positive that he did not desire war. He insisted, how- 
ever, that the blood of his innocent people should no more be shed, and warned 
them that if hereafter the Indians either murdered or robbed his people, he 
would exact atonement for every offense. On the other hand he stood 
pledged to make proper reparation for every injury of which they might justly 
complain. In the future the chiefs promised that their nation should maintain 
peace with the English. When about to depart, the governor ordered Captain 
Samuel Elbert, with his company of grenadiers, to escort them through the 
white settlements that no harm might befall them at the hands of the inhabi- 
tants. 

During the absence of these chiefs from their nation several war parties 
crossed the frontiers of Georgia and committed theft and murder. In a little 
while commissioners from the Upper Creek towns visited the governor and 
reported that their warriors had killed the leader and two of the men who had 
been guilty of these recent depredations. ^ 

^ McCall's His/ory of Georgia, \o\.\\,\)\). g-12,. Savannah. 1816. 



Silver Bluff. 55 



These difficulties were all happily terminated, and peace was restored at a 
■congress held in Savannah on the 20th of October, 1774. 

It excites no surprise that these incursions of the savages, and the insecu- 
rity of the New Purchase, as it was called, materially retarded for a time the 
tide of immigration which was turning rapidly towards Augusta and these 
desirable lands. Confidence, however, was restored by the covenants and the 
conclusions of the Savannah Congress. Applicants for purchase soon reap- 
peared in pleasing numbers, and those who had been driven from their par- 
tially settled homes returned and resumed their labors with renewed hope of 
safety and success. 

Of all the Indian traders and merchants prominently associated with the 
commerce and development of Augusta, no one was more influential or enter- 
prising than George Galphin. Although his home and his depot of supplies 
•were for many years located at Silver Bluff, on the Carolina side of the Savan- 
nah River, his affiliations were chiefly with Georgia, and his intercourse was 
principally with her people and with the Indian tribes dwelling within and 
upon her borders. His relations with Augusta were constant, and materially 
conduced to enhance the business of the town. By William Bartram. who 
visited him in 1774, he is described as " a gentleman of very distinguished tal- 
ents and great liberality, who possessed the most extensive trade, connections, 
and influence among the South and Southwest Indian tribes." 

Long was Silver Bluff a place of general resort and of much commercial 
importance. Hence were the annual royal presents for the Indians frequently 
distributed. Hither did the Indians, from an extensive territory, repair to 
exchange their peltry and animals for articles of European manufacture. 
From this point did traders depart amply supplied for distant expeditions and 
long sojourns among the red men. Here were storehouses, cattle pens, and 
structures erected for the accommodation of the rude visitors. Barges plied 
regularly between Silver Bluff and Charlestown and Savannah, and the landing 
place was the resort of multitudes of Indian canoes, many of them coming 
from remote points. It was a busy settlement by the swiftly moving waters 
of the tawny- hued Savannah. Over all watched the observant eye of the pro- 
prietor. So just was he in his dealings with the sons of the forest, and so 
extensive were his transactions with them, that he acquired an influence at 
once potent and far-reaching. 

The years roll on, and an increasing population, overleaping stream and 
mountain barrier, fills the hills and valleys of a distant interior. Before its 
inexorable advance the red race retires, and upon its departure the occupation 
of the Indian trader here becomes obsolete. Bereft of its importance this post 
lapses into decay, and the locality becomes the home of departed memories, 
the abode of traditions, and the dweUing-place of the phantoms of things 
that were. The same bold river with restless tide hastening onward to 



56 History of Augusta. 

mingles it waters with the billows of the Atlantic, the same overarching skies^ 
the same potent sun, kindred forests and voices of nature, but all else how 
changed ! 



CHAPTER V. 



Bartram's Description of Augusta in 1773 — Convention of 1774 — Protest from the Parish 
of St. Paul — Division of Sentiment — Conduct of Governor Wright — Dr. Lyman Hall — 
Action of St. John's Parish — Progress of the Revolution. 

IN the spring of 1773 the English naturalist and botanist, William Rartram, 
visited Augusta. He has left the following impression of the little town : 
" The village of Augusta is situated on a rich and fertile plain on the Savanna 
River ; the buildings are near its banks, and extend nearly two miles up to 
the cataracts or falls which are formed by the first chain of rocky hills through 
which this famous river forces itself as if impatient to repose on the extensive 
plain before it invades the ocean. When the river is low, which is during the 
summer months, the cataracts are four or five feet in height across the river^ 
and the waters continue rapid and broken, rushing over rocks five miles higher 

up 

" It was now about the middle of the month of May ; vegetation in perfec- 
tion appeared with all her attractive charms, breathing fragrance everywhere ; 
the atmosphere was now animated with the efficient principle of vegetative 
life. . . . Upon the rich, rocky hills at the cataracts of Augusta I first 
observed the perfumed rhododendron ferrugineum, white robed philadelphus 
inodorus, and cerulean malva; but nothing in vegetable nature was more pleas- 
ing than the oderiferous pancratium fluitans, which almost alone possesses the 
little rocky islets which just appear above the water." 

Upon a second visit to this town he writes : " The site of Augusta is per- 
haps the m.ost delightful and eligible of any in Georgia for a city. An exten- 
sive level plain on the banks of a fine navigable river, which has its numerous 
sources in the Cherokee mountains — a fruitful and temperate region — whence, 
after roving and winding about those fertile heights, they meander through a 
fertile, hilly country, and, one after another, combine in forming the Tugilo 
and Broad rivers, and then the famous Savanna River; thence they continue 
near a hundred miles more, following its meanders, and falls over the cataracts 
at Augusta, which cross the river at the upper end of the town. These falls 
are four or five feet perpendicular height in the summer season, when the river 
is low. From these cataracts upwards, this river, with all its tributaries as. 
Broad River, Little River, Tugilo, etc., is one continued rapid, with some short 



Convention of 1774. 57 



intervals of still water, navigable for canoes. But from Augusta downwards 
to the ocean, a distance of near three hundred miles by water, the Savannah 
uninterruptedly flows with a gentle meandering course, and is navigable for 
vessels of twenty or thirty tons burthen to Savannah, where ships of three 
hundred tons lie in a capacious and secure harbor. 

"Augusta, thus seated at the head of navigation, and just below the con- 
flux of several of its most considerable branches, without a competitor, com- 
mands the trade and commerce of vast fruitful regions above it, and from every 
side to a great distance; and I do not hesitate to pronounce, as my opinion, 
that it will very soon become the metropolis of Georgia. "^ 

This prediction was verified by the removal, not many years afterwards, of 
the seat of government from Savannah to Augusta. 

The passage of Lord North's bill for closing the port of Boston and occlud- 
ing the commerce of a town of prime importance in the English dominions in 
America, and subsequent acts of oppression passed in quick succession by the 
British Parliament, despite the protestations of Burke, Barre, and other liberal 
statesmen who bravely raised their warning voices against these measures of 
insult and injustice, produced a profound impression upon the minds of the 
patriots in Georgia, and induced them to give early and decided expression to 
their sentiments of condemnation. 

Responding to a call, issued on the 20th of July, 1774, by Noble W. Jones, 
Archibald Bullock, John Houstoun and John Walton, a number of the free- 
holders and inhabitants of the province assembled a week afterwards at the 
watch-house in Savannah, and, after appointing a committee on resolutions and 
of correspondence, adjourned to convene again on the lOth of August The 
chairman, Mr. John Glen, was requested to communicate with the respective 
districts and parishes composing the province, with a view to securing delegates 
from all of them who should attend at the adjourned convention and thus give 
general sanction to the patriotic resolutions which it was hoped would then 
be adopted. 

Although Governor Wright issued his proclamation declaring the purposed 
assemblage to be "unconstitutional, illegal, and punishable by law," in direct 
disregard of this manifesto, and in opposition to the expressed will of his ex- 
cellency, a general meeting of the inhabitants of the province was held at 
Tondee's tavern, in Savannah, on the lOth of August, 1774. 

The following resolutions, reported by the committee raised for that pur- 
pose at the former convocation, were adopted and given to the public as an 
expression of the sentiments of Georgia with repect to the important questions 
which were then agitating the minds of the American colonists : 

''Resolved, nemine contfadicente, That his majesty's subjects in America 



' Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, etc., etc., pp. 32-35, 314-3' 5- 
London, 1792. 



jg History of Augusta. 



owe the same allegiance, ard are entitled to the same rights, privileges, and 
immunities with their fellow subjects in Great Kritain. 

''Resolved, iieminc contradicenie. That, as protection and allegiance are re- 
ciprocal, and under the British constitution correlative terms, his majesty's 
subjects in Ameiica have a clear and indisputable right, as well from the gen- 
eral laws of mankind as from the ancient and established customs of the land, 
so often recognized, to petition the throne upon every emergency. 

''Resolved, nemine contradicente, That an act of parliament, lately passed 
for blockading the port and harbor cf Eoslon, is contrary to our idea of the 
British constitution, first, for that it in effect deprives good and lawful men of 
the use of their property without judgment of iheir peers, and secondly, for 
that it is in the nature of an ex post facto law, and indiscriminately blends as 
objects of punishment the innocent with the guilty; neither do we conceive 
the same justified upon a principle of necessity, for that numerous instances 
evince that the laws and executive power of Boston have made sufficient pro- 
vision for the punishment of all offenders against persons and property. 

" Resolved, neviine eoittradicente. That the act for abolishing the charter of 
Massachusetts Bay tends to the subversion of American rights; for, besides 
those general liberties, the original settlers brought over with them as their 
birthright particular immunities granted by such Charter, as an inducement and 
means of settling the province ; and we apprehend the said Charter cannot be 
dissolved but by a voluntary surrender of the people, representatively declared. 

"Resolved, nemine contradicente. That we apprehend the Parliament of 
Great Britain hath not, nor ever had, any right to tax his majesty's American 
subjects; for it is evident, beyond contradiction, the constitution admits of no 
taxation without representation ; that they are coeval and inseparable ; and 
every demand for the support of government should be, by requisition, made 
to the several houses of representatives. 

"Resolved, nemine contradicente. That it is contrary to natural justice and 
the established law of the land, to transport any person to Great Britain or 
elsewhere to be tried under indictment for a crime committed in any of the 
colonies, as the party prosecuted would thereby be deprived of the privilege 
of trial by his peers from the vicinage, the injured perhaps prevented from 
legal reparation, and both lose the full benefit of their witnesses. 

" Resolved, netnine contradicente, That we concur with our sister colonies 
in every constitutional measure to obtain redress of American grievances, and 
will, by every lawful means in our power, maintain those inestimable blessings 
for which we are indebted to God and the constitution of our country — a con- 
stitution founded upon reason and justice and the indelible rights of mankind. 

" Resolved, nemine contradicente. That the committee appointed by the 
meeting of the inhabitants of this province on Wednesday, the 27th of July 
last, together with the deputies who have appeared here on this day from the 



Protest Against the Convention. 59 

■dififerent parishes, bs a general ominittee to act, a;id that any eleven or more 
•of them shall have full p^vver to correspond with the committees of the several 
Provinces upon the continent; and that copies of these resolutions, as well as 
-of all other proceedings, be transmitted without delay to the Committees of Cor- 
respondence in the respective Provinces." 

A committee, consisting of William Ewen, William Young. Joseph Clay, 
John Houstoun, Noble Wimberley Jones, Edward Telfair, John Smith, Samuel 
Farley, and Andrew Elton Wells, was appointed to solicit, receive, and for- 
ward subscriptions and supplies for the suffering poor in Boston. Within a 
short time five hundred and seventy-nine barrels of rice were contributed and 
shipped to that town. 

While this meeting was most respectably constituted, and while its deliber- 
.ations and conclusions were harmonious, it must not ]be supposed that there 
was no division of sentiment in Georgia upon the p )litical questions of the d ly. 
On the contrary, the royal party was strong and active, and it required no lit- 
tle effort on the part of the "Liberty Boys " to acquire the mastery and place the 
province fairly within the lists of the Revolutionists. The line of demarcation 
was sometimes so sharply drawn that father was arrayed against son, and brother 
against brother. Thus, not to multiply instances, the Hon. James Habersham 
and Colonel Noble Jones maintained their allegiance to the crowa, while their 
sons were amongst the foremost champions of the rights of the colony. The 
brothers Telfair were divided in sentiment upon the momentous issues then 
involved. The cruel effects of such disagreements, experienced during the pro- 
gress of the Revolution, were projected, not infrequently, even be/ond the final 
establishment of the republic. No cause of quarrel can be more dangerous 
than that involving a conflict of opinion touching the relative rights of the 
governing and the governed. No calamities are so appalling as those engen- 
dered in a strife between peoples of the same race, and claiming privileges em- 
anating from the same fountain head. Polybius was right when he said that 
such dissensions were to be dreaded much more than wars waged in a foreign 
country, or against a common enemy. 

The only paper published in the colony at this time was the Georgia Ga:;- 
ette. It was under the control of Governor Wright, and its official utterances 
were in support of the royal cause. In its issue of Wednesday, September 7. 
1774,1 appeared a card signed by James Habersham, Lachlan McGiUivray, 
Josiah Tattnall, James Hume, Anthony Stokes, Edward Langworthy, Henry 
Yonge, Robert Bolton, Noble Jones, David iVIontaigut and some ninety-three 
•others, inhabitants and freeholders chiefly of the tov/n and district of Savannah, 
•criticising the meeting of the 1 0th of August, and protesting that the resolu- 
tions then adopted should not be accepted as reflecting the sentiments of the 
people of Georgia. "The important meeting of the lOth of August in the de- 

' No. 570. 



6o History of Augusta. 



fense of the constitutional rights and liberties of the American subjects," these 
gentlemen affirmed, " was held at a tavern, with the doors shut for a consider- 
able time ; and it is said twenty-six persons answered for the whole province, 
and undertook to bind them by resolutions; and when several gentlemen at- 
tempted to go in, the tavern-keeper, who stood at the door with a list in his 
hand, refused them admittance because their names were not mentioned in that 
list. Such was the conduct of these pretended advocates for the liberties of 
America. Several of the inhabitants of St. Paul and St. George, two of the 
most populous parishes of the province, had transmitted their written dissents 
to any resolutions, and there were gentlemen ready to present these dissents, 
had not the door been shut for a considerable time and admittance refused. 
And it is conceived the shutting of the door, and refusing admittance to any 
but resolutioners, was calculated to prevent the rest of the inhabitants from giv- 
ing their dissent to measures that were intended to operate as the unanimous 
sense of the Province. Upon the whole, the world will judge whether the 
meeting of the loth of August, held by a few persons in a tavern, with doors 
shut, can with any appearance of truth ©r decency, be called a general meeting 
of the inhabitants of Georgia." Such is the other side of the story as told by a 
pen dipped in the king's ink. 

The following is the protest from certain inhabitants of the parish of St. Paul. 
It will be found in number 575 of TJie Georgia Gazette, under date of Wednes- 
day, October 12. 1774: 

" Georgia, Parish of St. Paul. — We, inhabitants of the town and district 
of Augusta, think it incumbent upon us in this public manner to declare 
our dissent from, and disapprobation of certain resolutions published in this 
Gazette, entered into on Wednesday, the loth day of August, as it is there 
said, at a general meeting of the inhabitants of this province, though we are 
credibly informed that the said meeting, so far from being general, was not even 
numerous, and that one of our representatives, whom we had provided with a 
protest, and our reasons-at-large why we could not agree to any resolutions 
expressive of disaffection or disrespect to our most gracious king, or the Lords 
and Commons of Great Britain, thought it improper to deliver said protest to 
a few people, met privately in a tavern, having also been told by some gentle- 
men coming from the place of meeting, that they had been refused admittance. 
"We entirely dissent from the aforesaid resolutions. First, because we ap- 
prehend that this mode of assembly, and entering into resolutions that arraign 
the conduct of the king and parliament is illegal, and tends only to alienate 
the affection, and forfeit the favor and protection of a most gracious sovereign, 
and to draw upon this colony the displeasure of the Lords and Commons of 
Great Britain. Secondly, because, if we have real grievances to complain of,, 
the only legal and constitutional method of seeking redress is, we apprehend, 
to instruct our representatives in Assembly to move for and promote a decent 



Division of Sentiment. 6i 

and proper application to his majesty and the Parliament for relief. Thirdly, 
because, if we should be silent upon this occasion, our silence would be con- 
strued into consent, and a partial act of, and resolutions entered into by, some 
individuals might be considered as the general sense of the province. 

" "We therefore, in duty to our king, our country, and ourselves, do hereby 
solemnly protest against the proceedings of the aforesaid meeting, and declare 
our entire dissent from the resolutions entered into at the same. 

"As witness our hands at Augusta this 30th day of August, 1 774." Signed 
by Robert Mackay, Andrew Johnston, Edward Barnard, William Goodgion, 
James Gordon, James Grierson, John Daniel Hammerer, Francis Begbie, 
Thomas Graham, Francis Pringle, Donald Cameron, John Frances, Daniel 
Waiscoat, George Barnard, Charles Walker, John Pratt, William Matthews, 
Robert Bonner, Benjamin Webster, Martin Weatherford, Abraham Spear, John 
Lamar, John Francis Williams, Peter Paris, John Bacon, Sherwood Bugg, Will- 
iam Bugg, Daniel Wolecon, William Johnson, Charles Clark, Moody Butt,^ 
Samuel Clark, John Howell, John Dooly, Thomas Grierson, Robert Grierson, 
Spencer Kelly and Joseph Leslie. 

In the same number of the Gazette appear two more numerously signed 
protests from the parish of St. Paul, one from the " Inhabitants of the town 
and township of Wrightsborough and places adjacent," and the other from the 
" Inhabitants of the Kyoka and Broad River settlements." 

In the absence of accurate information, we are inclined to believe that, at 
the inception of these disagreements between the mother country and her 
American colonies, the citizens of the parish of St. Paul, while divided in sen- 
timent upon the grave questions then agitating the public mind, were largely 
in sympathy with the crown, and averse to allying themselves with the Revo- 
lutionists. As a rule the office holders, the men of means, and the older in- 
habitants hesitated, by word or act, to do anything which would tend to anger 
the king and Parliament. The young men and the ardent, on the contrary, 
were inclined to be precipitate, and refrained not from enlisting themselves 
under the banner of the " Sons of Liberty." 

It excites no wonder that many of the wealthiest and most influential citi- 
zens of Georgia should have tenaciously clung to the fortunes of the crown 
and sincerely deprecated all idea of a separation from the mother country. Of 
all the American colonies this province had subsisted most generously upon 
royal bounty, and had been the recipient of favors far beyond those extended 
to sister plantations. 

To these protests from the inhabitants of Saint Paul, the committee of 
Saint John's parish, through Chairman Lyman Hall, on the 17th of October, 
1774, submitted an elaborate rejoinder.^ This evoked from a signer of the Au- 
gusta protest the following humorous retort, addressed to the printer of the 

• See the Georgia Gazette, No. 577, under date October 26, 1774. 



€2 History of Augusta. 



Georgia Gazette :^ " Give me leave to tell you a story. A gentleman, whom 
for the present we shall call Paul, had a very splenetic brother named John 
who was very apt to take fire whenever Paul took upon himself, in a friendly 
way, to remonstrate against his conduct. It happened once that, while they 
were smoking their pipes by the fire, Paul took occasion calmly to censure 
some part of John's behavior, which he thought reprehensible, at which, 
the choleric gentleman, being touched in his tender part, immediately broke 
out and abused his well meaning brother (in much the same strain as I seethe 
St. John's committee have abused their well-meaning brethren in our parish 
for daring to think differently from themselve.s) with a most impetuous torrent 
of groundless and uncharitable rancor; to which, after John had fully vented 
his spleen, and taken a little breath, Paul made no answer, but blew a mouth- 
ful of smoke, which he had very deliberately collected for the purpose, full in 
John's face, and, upon John's vehemently asking him the meaning of such be- 
havior, replied, with great indifference, " Wind for wind, John." 

Then came the answer of Miso Tyrannus,' presenting " smoke for smoke ;" 
and so the battle of words was waged in the columns of the only journal pub- 
lished in the colony. Some of these communications were caustic, and tended 
to widen and intensify the differences then existent in the public mind with 
regard to the political situation. 

The two parties in the province were already counting noses, and marshal- 
ing their forces for the impending contest. Violent altercations were not in- 
frequent, and the animosity existing between the professed adherents to the 
crown and the avowed opponents to longer submission to British rule, was 
every day becoming more pronounced. With that political sagacity which 
characterized him, Governor Wright foresaw the danger and confessed the ina- 
bility of the colonial government to sustain itself In the face of the gathering 
storm. He frankly admitted to the home authorities that it required the in- 
terposition of a power greater than that possessed by the executive, to rectify 
alleged abuses, remedy existing evils, repress present lawlessness, and subdue 
the flame of independence which was each year burning more fiercely in the 
province. In the convention of the loth of August, the expediency of send- 
ing six deputies to the proposed general Congress of the American colonies 
was discussed. The suggestion, however, did not receive the sanction of that 
assemblage, and so Georgia was not represented in that congress. 

Mortified at the apathy displayed, and the lack of prompt action on the 
part of the other parishes, the inhabitants of St. John's parish, with surprising 
unanimity, resolved independently to " prosecute their claims to an equality 
with the Confederated colonies." This parish then possessed nearly one-third 
of the aggregate wealth of Georgia, and its citizens were remarkable for their 



' See the Georgia Gazette, No. 579, under date November 9, 1774. 

''The Georgia Gazette, No. 582, under date Wednesday, November 30, 1774. 



Dr. Lyman Hall. 



6j 



thrift, courage, honesty and determination. Having adopted certain resohi- 
tions by which they obligated themselves to hold no commerce with Savan- 
nah, or other places, excepc under the supervision of a committee, and then 
only with a view to procuring the necessaries of life, and having avowed their 
entire sympathy with all the articles and declarations promulgated by the gen- 
eral Congress, the inhabitants of St. John's parish elected Dr. Lyman Hall to 
represent them in the Continental Congress. This appointment occurred on 
the 2ist of March, and no more suitable selection could have been made. 
Among the prominent citizens of the parish none occupied a position superior 
to that accorded to Dr. Hall. A native of Connecticut, he had long been 
identified with the region, and was a member of the Midway congregation. 
Owning and cultivating a rice plantation on the Savannah and Darien road, 
only a few miles from Midway meeting-house, he resided in Sunbury and was 
the leading physician in that community. When departing for the continental 
Congress he carried with him, as a present from his constituents to the suffer- 
ing republicans in Massachusetts, one hundred and sixty barrels of rice and 
fifty pounds sterling. On the 13th of May, this gentleman, who had been 
largely instrumental in persuading the parish of St. John to this independent 
course, presented his credentials in Philadelphia and was unanimously ad- 
mitted to a seat in Congress, " as a delegate from the parish of St. John, in the 
Colony of Georgia, subject to such regulations as the Congress should deter- 
mine relative to his voting." Until Georgia was fully represented. Dr. Hall 
declined to vote upon questions which were to be decided by a vote of colon- 
ies. He, however, participated in the debates, recorded his opinions in all 
cases where an expression of sentiment by colonies was not required, and de- 
clared his earnest conviction " that the example which had been shown by the 
parish which he represented would be speedily followed, and that the repre- 
sentation of Georgia vv^ould soon be complete." 

The patriotic spirit of its inhabitants and this independent action of St 
John's parish in advance of the other parishes of Georgia were afterwards 
acknowledged when all the parishes were in accord in the revolutionary move- 
ment. As a tribute of praise and in token of general admiration, by special 
act of the Legislature the name of Liberty county was conferred upon the con- 
solidated parishes of St. John, St. Andrew, and St. James. Sir James Wright 
was not far from the mark when he located the head of the rebellion in St. 
John's parish, and advised the Earl of Dartmouth that the rebel measures there 
inaugurated were to be mainly referred to the influence of the " descendants of 
New England people of the Puritan Independent sect." who, retaining "a 
strong tincture of republican or Oliverian principles, have entered into an 
agreement among themselves to adopt both the resolutions and the association 
of the Continental Congress." On the altars erected within the Midway dis- 
trict were the fires of resistance to the dominion of England kindled in bold- 



^4 History of Augusta. 



«st relief; and Lyman Hall, of all the dwellers there, by his counsel, exhorta- 
tions, and determined spirit, added stoutest fuel to the flames. Between the 
immis^rants from Dorchester and the distressed Bostonians existed not only 
the ties of a common lineage, but also sympathies born of the same religious, 
moral, social and political education. Hence we derive an explanation why 
the Midway settlement avowed, at such an early stage and so emphatically, 
entire sympathy with the revolutionists. The Puritan element, cherishing and 
proclaiming intolerance of the established church and of the divine right of 
kings, impatient of restraint, accustomed to independent thought and action, 
and without associations which encouraged tender memories of, and love for 
the mother country, asserted its hatreds, its affiliations and its hopes with no 
uncertain utterance, and appears to have controlled the action of the entire 
parish. 

Since its settlement Georgia had received, by grant of Parliament, nearly 
;{J^200,000, in addition to generous bounties lavished in aid of silk culture and 
various agricultural products. This fact weighed with no little force upon the 
minds of many, and Governor Wright sought every opportunity to inculcate 
gratitude towards a sovereign whose paternal care had been so kindly mani- 
fested. 

Other colonies had charters upon which to base some claims for redress. 
Georgia had none. Upon the surrender by the trustees of the charter granted 
to them by King George the Second, all chartered privileges became extinct. 
Upon its erection into a royal province, the commission of the governor, and 
the instructions of his majesty communicated through the Lords of Trade and 
Plantations and the Privy Council, constituted the supreme measure of privi- 
lege and the rules of government 

For fourteen years had Sir James Wright presided over the colony with 
impartiality, wisdom and firmness. Through his zeal and watchfulness the 
province had been delivered from the horrors of Indian warfare, and guided 
into the paths of peace and plenty. By his negotiations millions of acres had 
been added to the public domain. Diligent in the discharge of his official du- 
ties, firm in his resolves, just in the exercise of his powers, loyal in his opin- 
ions, courteous in his manners, thrifty in the conduct of his private affairs, and 
exhibiting the operations of a vigorous and well-balanced judgment, he secured 
the respect and affection of his people. Although differing from many of the 
inhabitants upon the political questions which were now dividing the public 
mind, he never suffered himself to be betrayed into acts of violence or revenge. 
He preferred to counsel, to enlighten, to exhort. Georgia was prosperous, 
and her development, year by year, was marked. Her position therefore was 
peculiar, and it excites no surprise that at the outset there should have been a 
division of sentiment upon the momentous political issues presented for her 
consideration. The period of doubt, however, was short in its duration. Be- 



Revolutionary Movements in Savannah. 65 

fore Jefferson framed his immortal declaration of independence, Georgia cast 
her lot with her sister American colonies and, through her delegates, was par- 
ticipating in the adoption of those measures which brought about the War of 
the Revolution. Of all the English provinces in America Georgia had least 
cause to take arms against the mother country. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Revolutionary Movements in Savannah — Thomas Brown Tarred and Feathered in Au- 
gusta- -Provincial Congress of July 4, 1775 — Article of Association — Organization of the Mili- 
tia and of the Courts— Independence of Georgia Proclaimed— Military Operations. 

FORWARDED by post-riders, traveling night and day, came the news of 
the affairs at Lexington and Concord. Reaching Savannah on the even- 
ing of the loth of May, the report of this shock of arms created the profound- 
est excitement. Gage's order, promulgated on that epochal occasion by the 
haughty lips of Major Pitcairn — "Disperse ye villains! ye rebels disperse!"— - 
was answered by defiant shouts from the granite hills of New England to the 
echoing Savannahs of the South. The blood of yeomen shed on Lexington 
green cemented the union of the colonies. The thunders of the 19th of April 
awoke the Georgia parishes from their lethargy, incited to prompt action, and 
turned the popular tide in favor of resistance to Parliamentary rule. 

At a late hour on the night of the i ith of May, a party, under the leader- 
ship of Dr. Noble W. Jones, Joseph Habersham, Edward Telfair, William Gib- 
bons, Joseph Clay and John Milledge, broke open the magazine in Savannah, 
and removed therefrom some six hundred pounds of gunpowder. The tradi- 
tion lives, and is generally credited, that some of the powder, thus obtained, 
was forwarded to Cambridge, Mass., and was actually expended by the patriots 
in the memorable battle of Bunker Hill. 

On the 2 1st of June a call, signed by Noble W. Jones, Archibald Bullock, 
John Houstoun and George Walton was published, requesting the inhabitants 
of the town and district of Savannah to meet at the liberty pole for the pur- 
pose of selecting a committee to bring about a union of Georgia with the other 
colonies in the effort to achieve national independence. The convocation 
occurred at the indicated tirhe and place, and a Council of Safety, consisting of 
William Ewen, president, William LeConte, Joseph Clay, Basil Cooper. Sam- 
uel Elbert, William Young, Elisha Butler, Edward Telfair, John Glenn, George 
Houstoun, George Walton, Joseph Habersham, Francis H. Harris, John Smith 
and John Morell, members, and Seth John Cuthbert, secretary, was appointed 
9 



66 History of Augusta. 



with instructions to maintain an active correspondence with the Continental 
Congress, with the Councils of Safety in other provinces, and with the com- 
mittees nominated in the other parishes in Georgia. One of the resolutions 
adopted at this meeting of the 22d of June provided that Georgia would not 
afford protection to, or become an asylum for, any person who, from his con- 
duct might be properly considered inimical to the common cause of American 
liberty, or who should have drawn upon himself the disapprobation or censure 
of any of the other colonies. 

In disregard of the purport of this resolution, openly proclaiming his alle- 
giance to the Crown, and actively opposing the operations of the Council of 
Safet}' in the parish of St. Paul, Thomas Brown, whom Sir James Wright calls 
^'a young gentleman of Augusta," attracted the notice and encountered the 
enmity of the "Liberty Boys" of that town. Refusing to hearken to their 
warnings, and mend his ways, he was arrested by a mob of Revolutionists, was 
tarred and feathered, hoisted into a cart illuniinafed for the occasion, was pa- 
raded for hours through the principal streets, and was finally forced to seek 
protection in South Carolina.^ Smarting under these indignities, he subse- 

1 The Georgia Gazette furnishes the tbllowing account of the affair : " This day a respect- 
able body of the Sons of Liberty marched from this place (Augusta), to New Richmond, in 
South Carolina, in order to pay a visit to Thomas Brown and William Thompson, esqs, two 
young gentlemen, lately from England, for their having publicly and otherwise expressed 
themselves enemies to the measures now adopted for the support of American liberty, and 
signing an association to that effect, besides their using their utmost endeavors to inflame the 
minds of the people, and to persuade them to associate and be of their opinion. But upon their 
arrival they found the said Thompson, like a traitor, had run away ; and the said Thomas 
Browne, being requested in civil terms to come to Augusta to try to clear himself of such accu- 
sations, daringly repeated that he was not, nor would he be answerable to them, or any other 
of them, for his conduct ; whereupon they politely escorted him into Augusta, where they pre- 
sented him with a genteel and fashionable suit of tar and feathers, and afterwards had him ex- 
hibited in a cart from the head of Augusta to Mr. Weatherford's, where out of humanity they 
had him taken care of for that night ; and en the next morning he, the said Thomas Browne, 
having publiclvxleclared upon his honor, and consented voluntarily to swear that he repented 
for his past conduct, and that he would, for the future, at the hazard of his life and fortune, 
protect and su])port tiie rights and liberties of America, and saying that the said Thompson 
had misled him, and that therefore he would use his utmost endeavors to have his name taken 
from the association he had signed as aforesaid ; and further, that he would do all in his power 
to discountenance the proceedings of a set of men in the Ninety-Sixth District in South Caro- 
lina, called Fletchell's Party ; upon which, the said Browne was then discharged, and compli- 
mented with a horse and chair to ride home. But the said Thomas Browne, that time having 
publicly forfeited his honor and violated his oath voluntarily taken as aforesaid, is therefore not 
to be considered for the future in the light of a gentleman, and they, the said Thomas Browne 
and William Thompson are hereby publisiied as persons inimical to the rights and liberties of 
America ; and it is hoped all good men will treat them accordingly. 

" N. B. The said Thomas Browne is now a little remarkable ; he wears his hair very short, 
and a handkerchief tiefl around his head, in order that his intellects by the cold weather may 
not be affected." 

In August, 1775. William Davis, for publicly declaring himself a foe to the Sons of Lib- 



Provincial Congress of 1775. 57 



quently U ok service with the king's forces, became an active officer, and, with 
hatred in liis heart, returned to Augusta and wreaked vengeance upon the in- 
habitants of the town where he had sufifered such outrage and humiHation. 

Memorable in the poHtical annals of the colony were the proceedings of 
the Provi.icial Congress which assembled at Savannah on the 4th of July, 
1775. Every parish was represented, and the delegates were fair exponents of 
the intelligence, the dominant hopes, and the material interests of the commu- 
nities from which they respectively came. This was Georgia's first secession 
convention. It placed the province in active sympathy and confederated alli- 
ance with the other twelve American colonies, practically annulled within her 
limits the operation of the objectionable acts of Parliament, questioned the 
supremacy of the realm, and inaugurated measures for the accomplishment of 
the independence of the plantation and its erection into the dignity of a State. 

The following members from the parish of St. Paul were present and par- 
ticipated in its deliberatiens: John Walton, Andrew Burns. Robert Rae. James 
Rae, Andrew Moore, Andrew Hurney, and Leonard Marbury. Joseph Mad- 
dock was also a delegate, but he declined to take his seat. 

Proclaiming in terms most emphatic their conception of the natural and 
constitutional rights which appertained to them as citizens of Georgia and sub- 
jects of Great Britain ; testifying their determined opposition to the late objec- 
tionable acts of Parliament, their admiration of the conduct of New England, 
and their resolution to share the fortunes of their sister colonies; manifesting 
their willingness to observe all orders of the Continental Congress, indicating 
their loyalty to America, and suggesting such measures as they deemed ap- 
propriate in the present perplexed condition of public affairs, the members of 
Congress 'speaking for themselves, their constituents, and for the entire prov- 
ince of Georgia, on the loth of July, 1775, passed the following preamble and 
resolutions : 

" Whereas, By the unrelenting fury of a despotic ministry, with a view to 
enforce the most oppressive acts of a venal and corrupted Parliament, an army 
of mercenaries, under an unfeeling commander, have actually begun a civil 
war in America; and whereas, the apparent iniquity and cruelty of these ob- 
structive measures have, however, had this good effect, to unite men of all 
ranks in the common cause ; and, whereas, to consult on means of safety and 
the method of obtaining redress the good people of this Province of Georgia 
have thought proper to appoint a Provincial Congress; the delegates met at 
the said Congress, now assembled from every part of the province, besides 

erty, was drummed three times round the Liherty Tree in Augusta, and published as a person 
"inimical to the rights and liberties of America." 

The Liberty Boys were then "carrying things with a high hand," and would brook no op- 
position. The flames of a revolution, once thoroughly kindled, are resistless in their onward 
sweep, attracting to their tiery emhrace'not only all that stands within the direct line of their 
passage, but whatever trembles on the verge of the heated vorte.x. 



68 History of Augusta. 



adopting the resolutions of the late Continental Congress, find it prudent to 
enter into such other resolutions as may best express their own sense and the 
sense of their constituents on the present unhappy situation of things, and 
therefore think fit and necessary to resolve as follows, viz.: 

*^ Resolved, That we were born free, have all the feelings of men, and are 
entitled to all the natural rights of mankind. 

"Resolved, That by birth or incorporation we are all Britons, and whatever 
Britons may claim as their birthright, is also ours. 

''Resolved, That in the British Empire, to which we belong, the constitution 
is superior to every man or set of men whatever, and that it is a crime of the 
deepest dye in any instance to impair, or take it away, or deprive the meanest 
subject of its benefits. 

" Resolved, That that part of the American continent which we inhabit was 
originally granted by the crown, and the charter from Charles the Second ex- 
pressly makes its constitutional dependence upon the crown only. 

''Resolved, That those who would now subject all America, or this province 
to dependency upon the crown and Parliament, are guilty of a vtry dangerous 
innovation, which in time will appear as injurious to the crown as it is incon- 
sistent witii the liberty of -the American subject. 

"Resolved, That by the law of nature and the British constitution no man 
can be legally deprived of his property without his consent, given by himself 
or his representatives. 

"Resolved, That the acts of the British Parliament for raising a perpetual 
revenue on the Americans by laying a tax on them without their consent and 
contrary to their protestations, are diametrically opposite to every idea of prop- 
erty, to the spirit of the constitution, and at one stroke deprive this vast con- 
tinent of all liberty and property, and, as such, must be detested by every well- 
wisher to Great Britain and America. 

"Resolved, That the subsequent laws, made with a view to enforce tliese 
acts, viz.: the Boston Port Bill, the Alteration of their Charter, the Act to carry 
beyond sea for Trial, and (what refines upon every species of cruelty) the Fish- 
ery Bill, are of such a complexion that we can say nothing about them for want 
of words to express our abhorrence and detestation. 

"Resolved, That the loyalty, patience, and prudence of the inhabitants of 
New England under their unparalleled pressures having been construed into 
timidity and a dread of regular troops, a civil war in support of acts extremely 
oppressive in themselves hath actually been begun, and there is too much 
reason to believe that plans have been in agitation big with everything horri- 
ble to other Provinces ; plans as rash, barbarous and destructive as the cause 
which they were intended to serve. 

"Resolved, That in these times of extreme danger, our assembly not being 
permitted to sit, we must either have been a people without all thought or 



Resolutions Passed. 69 



counsel, or have assembled as we now are in Provincial Congress to consult 
upon measures which, under God, may prove the means of a perpetual union 
with the Mother Country, and tend to the honor, freedom, and safety of both. 

''Resolved, That this Province bears all true allegiance to our own rightful 
Sovereign, King George the Third, and always will and ought to bear it agree- 
able to the constitution of Great Britain, by virtue of which only the King is 
now our Sovereign, and which equally binds Majesty and subjects. 

''Resolved, That we are truly sensible how much our safety and happiness 
depend on a constitutional connection with Great Britain, and that nothing but 
the being deprived of the privileges and natural rights of Britons could ever 
make the thought of a separation otherwise than intolerable. 

"Resolved, That in case his Majesty or his successors shall at any time 
hereafter make any requisition on the good people of this Province by his rep- 
resentative, it will be just and right that such sums should be granted as the na- 
ture of the service may require, and the ability and situation of this Province 
will admit of. 

"Resolved, That this Province join with all the Provinces in America now 
met by Delegates in Continental Congress, and that John Houstoun and Archi- 
bald Bullock, esquires, the Rev. Dr. Zubly, Lyman Hall, and Noble Wymberly 
Jones, esqs., be the delegates from this Province, and that any three constitute 
a quorum for that purpose. 

"Resolved, That a Committee be appointed whose duty it shall be to see 
that the resolutions of the Continental Congress and Provincial Congress be 
duly observed, and that every person who shall act in opposition thereto have 
his name transmitted to the Continental Congress, and that his misdeeds be 
published in every American paper. 

"Resolved, That with all such persons, except the indispensable duties we 
owe to all mankind (bad men and enemies not excepted) we will have no deal- 
ings nor connection; and we extend this our resolution also to all such per- 
sons or corporations in Great Britain who have shown themselves enemies to 
America. 

" Resolved, That we will do what in us lies to preserve and promote the 
peace and good order of this Province ; and should any person become an in- 
nocent sufferer on account of these grievances, we will do whatever we justly 
may lor his relief and assistance. 

"Resolved, That in such calamitous times as the present, every possible in- 
dulgence ought to be given to honest debtors ; that it would be ungenerous 
(unless tliere appear intention of fraud) in any gentleman of the law to sue 
without previous notice ; and any person so sued may apply to the Committee ; 
and should it appear to them that the creditor is in no danger of losing his 
money, or that he can be properly secured, they shall interpose their friendly 
offices to persuade him to drop the prosecution ; and every prosecutor that 



70 History of Augusta. 



shall appear to take advantage of the confusion of the times to distress his 
debtor, ought to be publicly pointed out and held in abhorrence. 

''Resolved, That notwithstanding in a late Bill for restraining the trade of 
several Provinces in America, this Province is excepted, we declare that we 
look upon this exception rather as an insult than a favor ; as being meant to 
break the union of the Provinces, and as being grounded on the supposition 
that the inhabitants of such excepted Province can be base enough to turn the 
oppression of America into a mean advantage."^ 

Having memorialized the General Congress, the governor, the citizens of 
Georgia, and the king; having framed a bill of rights and proclaimed the priv- 
ileges for which they were resolved to contend ; having introduced Georgia 
into the fold of the confederated provinces; having enlarged the powers and 
strengthened the hands of the Council of Safety, and appointed committees of 
conespondence and of intelligence; having provided the wa}'s and means for 
future sessions of congress; and, above all, having demonstrated the inability 
of the king's servants to control the province in the present crisis, this assem- 
bly — perhaps the most important ever convened in Georgia — adjourned on the 
17th of July, subject to further call up to the 20th of August. 

On the 13th of July the Provincial Congress unanimously adopted this 
article of association : 

"Georgia. Being persuaded that the salvation of the rights and liberties 
of America depend, under God, on the firm union of the inhabitants in its vig- 
orous prosecution of the measures necessary for its safety, and convinced of the 
necessity of preventing the anarchy and confusion which attend the dissolution 
0} the powers of government, we, the freemen, freeholders^ and inhabitants of 
the Province of Georgia, being greatly alarmed at the avowed design of the 
Ministry to raise a revenue in America, and shocked by the bloody scene now 
acting in the Massachusetts Bay, do, in the most solemn manner, resolve never 
to become slaves ; and do associate, under all the ties of religion, and honor, 
and love to our country, to adopt and endeavor to carry into execution what- 
ever may be recommended by the Continental Congress, or resolved upon by 
our Provincial Convention, appointed for preserving our constitution and op- 
posing the execution of the several arbitrary and oppressive acts of the British 
Parliament, until a reconciliation between Great Britain and America, on con- 
stitutional principles, which we most ardently desire, can be obtained ; and 
that we will, in all things, follow the advice of our general committee appointed, 
respecting the purposes aforesaid, the preservation of peace and good order, 
and the safety of individuals and private property." 

John Smith, Basil Cowper, George Houstcjun, Joseph Clay, William Young, 
Philip Box, Seth John Cuthbert, William O'Bryan, George Walton, William 
LeConte, William Gibbons, Samuel Elbert, Edward Telfair and Oliver Bowen 

' See Georgia Gazette of July 12, 1775, No. 614. 



Article of Association. . 71 



were designated as a committee " to present this association to all the inhabi- 
tants of the Town and District of Savannah to be signed." Expedition was en- 
joined, and these gentlemen were requested to furnish the General Committee 
with the names of all who declined to affix their signatures. 

The article of association adopted by the Provincial Congress was indus- 
triously circulated throughout the province, and an opportunity was afforded 
to all citizens to sign it. Comparatively few there were who declined to affix 
their signatures. The revolutionists were in earnest, and it required no little 
nerve to resist their appeals, gainsay their arguments, or incur their displeasure. 
It was deemed essential to the success of the liberty cause that no officer 
should be retained in commission who refused or neglected to sign that article 
of association. Accordingly the militia was thoroughly purged of the loyalist 
element. In the organization of the battalion, raised under authority of the 
Continental Congress at the common charge of the united provinces for the 
protection of Georgia, of which Lachlan Mcintosh was colonel, Samuel Elbert, 
lieutenant-colonel, and Joseph Habersham, major, Augusta was credited with 
one company officered by Chesley Bostick as captain, and John Martin as first 
lieutenant. 

The last branch of the government over which the Provincial Congress as- 
sumed control, was the judicial. All courts of law were taken under its super- 
vision, and a committee of fifteen was appointed to hold quarterly sessions in 
Savannah as a Court of Appeals " to hear and determine between the parties, 
and sanction or prohibit processes according to the circumstances of the case." 
The erection of Georgia into a body politic, apart from and opposed to the 
government hitherto existing by authority of the crown, was now accomplished. 
The president of the Council of Safety was virtually the governor of this quasi- 
commonwealth. Such laws as were requisite for the preservation of the public 
peace, the maintenance of order, and the defrayal of current expenses, were 
promulgated as resolutions by the Provincial Congress and by the Council' of 
Safety. Courts competent for the assertion of rights and the redress of wrongs 
were in active operation. A military force had been organized for the com 
mon defense, A union with the other American colonies had been perfected. 
A royal governor, it is true, still resided in Savannah, but he was little else than 
a prisoner with a barren sceptre in his grasp. Members of the king's council 
there were, but their advice was neither asked nor allowed in the conduct of 
affairs. Other officers, holding warrant from the crown, were idle spectators 
of events. Within the entire circuit of the province there was none to enforce 
the will of his majesty. Well might Governor Wright exclaim in behalf of 
himself and the other servants of the king in Georgia, *' we shall not remain 
much longer in this distressful condition." 

From this period until the erection of Georgia into a State upon the conclu- 
sion of the Revolutionary War, there occurred but little legislation in the proper 



72 History of Augusta. 

acceptation of that term. The general assemblies, which convened at various 
times during Governor Wright's administration, had given to the statute book 
no fewer than one hundred and forty-eight acts and resolutions, covering a 
wide range of subjects, and providing for the growing wants of a province 
which had already assumed the proportions of an important, populous, and 
profitable dependency. These laws, where they did not militate against the 
newly erected government and the changed condition of affairs, were allowed 
to remain in active operation. 

The arrest by Major Joseph Habersham, and a party selected by himself, of 
his excellency Sir James Wright, the flight of the royal governor, the formation 
of a temporary constitution, the selection of the Hon. Archibald Bulloch as the 
first Republican president of Georgia, the first passage at arms at Savannah 
wherein Colonel Mcintosh frustrated the attempt of Captain Barclay and Major 
Grant to capture the rice-laden vessels lying at anchor in the Savannah River^ 
the gallant demonstration against the enemy upon Tybee Island, the futile effort 
of Captain Baker to surprise Wright's Fort on the River St. Mary, the promulga- 
tion of the Declaration of Independence in Savannah, the invasion of the Chero- 
kee territory by the column led by Colonel Jack assisted by Captains John 
Twiggs, John Jones, Leonard Marbury, Samuel Alexander and Thomas Harris, 
the adoption of the constitution of 1777, the capture of Fort Mcintosh, Gov- 
ernor Gwinnett's ill conceived project for the subjugation of East Florida, 
Colonel Baker's defeat, the bloody duel between Gwinnett and Mcintosh, Day- 
ton's vain attempt to effect a consolidation of the States of South Carolina and 
Georgia, the disastrous expedition of Governor Houstoun and General Howe 
against East Florida, Colonel Elbert's gallant capture of the Hinchinbrooke, 
Colonel Clark's brave assault upon the enemy's works at Alligator Creek, the 
transfer by the British of the theater of war from the northern to the southern 
provinces, the invasion of Southern Georgia hy Colonels Fuser and Prevost, 
the affair near Midway Meeting- House, the successful defense of Fort Morris 
at Sunbury, and the capture of Savannah by Colonel Campbell, were some of 
the important events which followed in rapid succession. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Colonel Campbell's Advance Upon, and Capture of Augusta — Republican Operations in 
Upper Georgia — Battle of Kettle Creek — Augusta Evacuated l:)y the King's Forces. 

UPON the fall of Savannah in December, 1778, and the withdrawal of the 
remnant of General Howe's army into South Carolina, the entire coast 
region of Georgia, with the exception of Sunbury, was open to the enemy, 



Col. Campbell's Advance upon Augusta. 73 



who issued very stringent proclamations and exacted tribute most onerous. 
Never was change more sudden or violent wrought in the status of any peo- 
ple. Fort Morris soon surrendered unconditionally to General Prevost, and 
Ebenezer, without a struggle, quickly passed into the possession of the king's 
forces. Southern Georgia was now in a deplorable plight. Unable to support 
themselves amid the destitution, demoralization, and restrictions to which the 
subjugated territory was subjected, many of the inhabitants set out for Carolina, 
where, aided by the charity of strangers, they hoped to subsist until the com- 
ing season afforded an opportunity for planting and harvesting crops in their 
new homes. Others, possessing the means of subsistence, were so hampered 
by royal edicts, and were so preyed upon by foreign and domestic foes, that 
they abandoned the country in quest of peace and security. 

Augusta, alone, of all the rebel posts in Georgia, had not yet submitted to 
the royal arms. It was occupied by a provincial force under Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Williamson, and its reduction was necessary to complete the subjugation 
of Georgia. About the middle of January, 1779, Colonel Campbell was de- 
tached with a column about a thousand strong to capture this town. The 
Savannah River was now the dividing line between the contending armies. 
General Lincoln was at Purrysburg, on the north side of the river, with a force 
of some five hundred continentals and two thousand provincials. The main 
body of the enemy was at Abercora. In Savannah were one thousand Hes- 
sians. At the Two Sisters there was a detachment of six hundred men. Two 
hundred more guarded Zubly's ferry, and at Ebenezer a considerable force 
was stationed.^ So near were the two armies that, in the language of Gen- 
eral Moultrie, writing from Purrysburg, " we hear their drums beat every morn 
from our outposts; nay, hear their sentinels cough." 

Although anxious to inaugurate a movement for the relief of Georgia, the 
American commander found himself too weak to cross the river. His troops 
were in large measure undisciplined, and lacked arms. The North Carolina 
levies, under the command of General Richardson, were discontented and on 
the eve of returning home. From Georgia came no recruits. " Most of the 
inhabitants of that State," reports General Moultrie, " have submitted quietly 
to the British government, and I believe they will remain neutral unless we go 
in with a considerable body so as to insure success." All that General Lincoln 
could do, under the circumstances, was to act upon the defensive, encourage 
reinforcements, and prevent the enemy from crossing over into Carolina. 

Advancing for the capture of Augusta, Colonel Campbell sent forward Col- 
onels Brown and McGirth with four hundred mounted militiamen to make a 
forced march to the jail in Burke county, and there form a junction with Colonel 
Thomas and his party of loyalists. 

' See Letter of General Moultrie to Colonel C. C. Ptnc^ney, 'dated Purrysburg-, Januar\- 16, 

1779- 

10 



74 History of Augusta. 



Advised of this movement, Colonels John Twiggs and Benjamin and William 
Few quickly concentrated an opposing force of two hundred and fifty mounted 
men. Attacked by Brown and McGirth, they succeeded in repulsing them, 
inflicting a loss of five killed, several wounded, and nine captured. Expecting 
that Brown would speedily be supported by Colonel Campbell, the Americans 
withdrew ; maintaining, however, a close watch upon the enemy. Rallying 
his troops, and being reinforced by a party of royalists from South Carolina 
under the command of two Tory majors, and a detachment led by Major Harry 
Sharp, Brown determined to renew the attack. In the second engagement he 
and McGirth were defeated, sustaining a loss greater than that encountered 
two days before. Among the wounded was the noted Tory leader of the expe- 
dition. In this skirmish Captain Joshua Inman, commanding a troop of Ameri- 
can horse, slew three of the enemy with his own hand. ^ 

General Elbert, who had been ordered by General Lincoln to proceed to 
the upper part of Corolina, crossing the Savannah River came to the assistance 
of Twiggs and the Colonels Few, Together they disputed, but were not strong 
enough to prevent Colonel Campbell's crossing at Brier Creek. Hoping to be 
reinforced by Colonel Andrew Williamson from Carolina, and Colonel Elijah 
Clarke from Wilkes county, they retired slowly, skirmishing with Campbell's 
column as it advanced upon Augusta, Those officers, however, were other- 
wise engaged and could not respond to the expectation. Upon his appearance 
before the town the American forces retreated across the river and yielded Au- 
gusta without a struggle. Tarrying there but a few days, and leaving Colonel 
Brown in command. Colonel Campbell, early in February, marched some thirty 
miles in the direction of Wilkes county, and detached Lieutenant-Colonel Ham- 
ilton, with two hundred mounted infantry, to proceed to the frontiers of Geor- 
gia and there encourage such of the inhabitants as were attached to the British 
government. The disaffected were to be summarily disarmed. Thus, for the 
moment, was Georgia completely in the possession of the king's forces. Overt 
opposition ceased, and it was believed by Colonel Campbell that the popula- 
tion would permanently yield to this enforced submission. Wherever British 
detachments appeared, the severest penalties were meted out to those who 
refused to take the oath of allegiance. For the possessions of such as were 
absent in arms, plunder and the torch were always in store. 

So soon as it was known in Wilkes county that Augusta had passed into 
the possession of the enemy, the inhabitants who were able to remove, hastily 
collecting their household effects and cattle, fled into Carolina. Those who 
remained betook themselves to forts, and associated together in small bands for 
mutual protection. Many, having lodged their wives, children, and servants 
in places of security, assembled under Colonel John Dooly on the Carolina 
shore of the Savannah River about thirty miles above Augusta. McGirth, 

1 McCall's History of Georgia, vol. ii, p. 191. Savannah. 1816. 



Military Operations. 75 



-with three hundred loyalists, was occupying a position on Kiokee Creek. Both 
parties were watching the ferries and collecting all boats found on the Savan- 
nah River. Returning to Georgia with a part of his command, Dooly was 
quickly pursued by Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, who pressed him so closely 
that he fired upon his rear as he recrossed the Savannah just below the mouth 
of Broad River. 

Having driven the rebels from that portion of the State, Hamilton en- 
camped with one hundred men on Water's plantation, three miles below Peters- 
burg. Dooly, with like force, was just opposite in South Carolina. There he 
was joined by Colonel Andrew Pickens, who brought with him two hundred 
and fifty men of his regiment. Although the senior in rank, Colonel Dooly 
yielded the command in deference to the fact that Pickens had contributed 
more than two-thirds of the troops constituting this little army. With this 
united force it was resolved to attack Hamilton without delay. Accordingly, 
on the night of the loth of February Pickens and Dooly crossed the Savannah 
at Cowen's ferry, three miles above Hamilton's encampment, and prepared to 
charge the enemy early the next morning. To their surprise and regret they 
found that the British officer, in entire ignorance of the impending danger, had 
departed on an excursion through the country to visit its forts and administer 
oaths of allegiance to such of the inhabitants as he chanced to meet. Conjec- 
turing that Carr's Fort would be the first point visited by the enemy, Captain 
A. Hamilton was directed, with a guide, to proceed rapidly to that point and 
arrange for its defense with such men as he might find there congregated. Pick- 
ens and Dooly, moving with their command, intended to fall upon the rear of 
Lieutenant- Colonel Hamilton as he should be engaged in an effort to reduce 
the fort. Captain Hamilton arrived in season to execute the order with which 
he was charged, but found that there were only seven or eight aged and infirm 
men in Carr's Fort, who, dreading the consequences, refused to undertake the 
defense of that post. The Americans were so close upon the heels of the 
British as they entered and took possession of the fort, that they were com- 
pelled to leave their horses and baggage outside the stockade. A brisk fire 
was opened on both sides, but without effect. A siege was determined on ; 
and, in order to cut the besieged off from all access to water, Captain William 
Freeman, with forty men of his company, in gallant style dashed through an 
open space exposed to the guns of the fort, and took possession of a newly 
constructed log house which effectually commanded the only source whence 
the enemy could hope to obtain a supply of water. 

Early in the evening the horses and baggage of the British were brought 
off, and every avenue of escape was occluded. The same afternoon the fort was 
summoned to a surrender. While refusing to accede to this summons, Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Hamilton requested that the women and children within the 
stockade might be allowed to depart. This application was denied. Without 



jQ History of Augusta. 



food and water, it was confidently believed that the enemy could not hold out 
more than twenty-four hours. Moreover, the possession of the log house near 
the water gave the assailants command of the tops of the huts inside the fort, 
whence the most injurious fire proceeded. The happ)' anticipations of the 
Americans were doomed to disappointment. About ten o'clock at night Col- 
onel Pickens received, at the hands of Captain Ottery, a dispatch from his 
brother, Captain Joseph Pickens, informing him that Colonel Boyd, with eight 
hundred loyalists, was moving through Ninety-Six district toward Georgia, 
destroying by fire and sword whatever lay in his path. It was deemed proper, 
without delay, to raise the siege and move against Boyd.. A proposition was 
made by some volunteers to apply the torch to the fort at several points at the 
same time, and thus to compel quick surrender. In tender consideration of the 
women and children who were within, the idea was abandoned. Carrying off 
their wounded, the Americans departed leaving Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton 
in the fort without horses or baggage. As soon as Pickens and Dooly were out 
of hearing, he quitted Carr's Fort, retreating upon Wrightsborough, where he 
occupied a small stockade for a few days and then rejoined Colonel Campbell 
at Augusta. In the affair at Carr's Fort the British lost nine killed and three 
wounded. The American casualties amounted to five killed and seven wounded. 
Retiring from Carr's F'ort the Americans recrossed the Savannah River 
near Fort Charlotte, and advanced toward the Long Cane settlement to meet 
Colonel Boyd. Hearing of his advance. Captain Robert Anderson, of Colonel 
Pickens's regiment, summoning to his aid Captains Joseph Pickens, William 
Baskin and John Miller with their companies, crossed the Savannah River with 
a view to annoying Boyd when he should attempt a passage of that stream. 
He was subsequently joined by some Georgians under Captain James Little. 
This accession increased his force so that he had, present for duty, nearly one 
hundred men. In order to avoid Pickens and Dooly, Colonel Boyd changed 
his route and approached the river at the Cherokee ford. Here, upon a com- 
manding elevation, was a block house mounting two swivel guns and garri- 
soned by a lieutenant and eight men. A quiet passage having been demanded 
and refused, Boyd proceeded up the river about five miles and there, placing 
his men and baggage on rafts and swimming his horses, effected a crossing. 
His instructions to his men were to land at different points on the opposite 
shore. This circumstance, in connection with the tall canes growing along the 
river bank, so confused the small force under Captain Anderson that it did 
not render an opposition as effectual as might have been expected. That the 
passage of the river was sharply contested, however, will be readily conceded 
when we remember that the Americans lost sixteen killed and wounded, and 
an equal number of prisoners. Among the latter were Captains Baskin and 
Miller. Colonel Boyd acknowledged a loss of one hundred killed, wounded^, 
and mjssing. 



Battle of Kettle Creek. 77 

Retreating rapidly, Captain Anderson formed a junction with Colonels Pick- 
ens and Dooly, and united in the pursuit of the enemy. On the 12th of Feb- 
ruary, passing the Savannah River at the Cedar shoal, the Americans advanced 
to the Fish-Dam ford, on Broad River. The command had now been reinforced 
by Colonel Clarke and one hundred dragoons. Captain Neal, with a party of 
observation, was detached to hang upon the enemy's rear, and, by frequent 
couriers, keep the main body well advised of Boyd's movements. 

Shaping his course to the westward, and purposing a junction with Mc- 
Girth at a point agreed upon on Little River, the enemy on the morning of the 
13th crossed Broad River, near the fork, at a place subsequently known as 
Webb's Ferry. Informed of this movement, the Americans passed over Broad 
River, and encamped for the night on Clarke's Creek within four miles of the 
loyalists. Early on the morning of the 14th, the Americans advanced rapidly 
but cautiously. Wherever the surface of the country permitted, their line of 
march was the order of battle. A strong vanguard moved one hundred and 
fifty paces in front. The right and left wings, consisting each of one hundred 
men, were commanded respectively by Colonels Dooly and Clarke. The cen- 
ter, numbering two hundred men, was led by Colonel Pickens Officers and 
men were eager for the fray, and confident of victory. Soon the ground was 
reached where the enemy had encamped during the preceding night. 

Seemingly unconscious of the approach of danger, the loyalist commander 
had halted at a farm on the north side of Kettle Creek and turned out his 
horses to forage among the reeds which lined the edge of the swamp. His 
men, who had been on short allowance for three day.'^, were slaughtering bul- 
locks and parching corn. Colonel Boyd's second officer was Lieutenant- Col- 
onel Moore, of North Carolina, who is said to have been deficient both in cour- 
age and military skill. The third in command. Major Spurgen. was brave and 
competent. 

As Colonel Pickens neared the enemy. Captain McCall was ordered to re- 
connoiter his position, and, unperceived, to acquire the fullest possible infor- 
mation of the status of affairs. Having completed his observations, that officer 
reported the encampment formed at the edge of the farm near the creek, on 
an open piece of ground flanked on two sides by a cane swamp, and that the 
enemy was apparently in utter ignorance of any hostile approach. The Ameri- 
cans then advanced to the attack. As they neared the camp, the pickets fired 
and retreated. Hastily forming his line in rear of his encampment, and avail- 
ing himself of the shelter afforded by a fence and some fallen timber, Boyd pre- 
pared to repel the assault. Colonel Pickens, commanding the American center,, 
obliqued a little to the right to take advantage of more commanding ground. 
The right and left divisions were somewhat embarrassed in forcing their way 
through the cane, but soon came gallantly into position. Colonel Boyd de- 
fended the fence with great bravery, but was finally overpowered and drivea 



78 History of Augusta. 



back upon the main body. While retreating he fell mortally wounded, pierced 
with three balls, two passing through his body and the third through his thigh. 

The conflict now became close, warm, and general. Some of the enemy, 
sore pressed, fled into the swamp and passed over the creek, leaving their 
horses, baggage, and arms behind them. 

After a contest lasting an hour the Tories retreated through the swamp. 
Observing a rising ground on the other side of the creek and in the rear of 
the enemy's right on which he thought the loyalists would attempt to form. 
Colonel Clarke, ordering the left wing to folhnv him, prepared to cross the 
stream. At this moment his horse was killed under him. Mounting another, 
he followed a patli which led to a ford and soon gained the side of the hill just 
in time to attack Major Spurgen who was endeavoring to form his command 
upon it. He was then accompanied by not more than a fourth of his division, 
there having been some mistake in extending the order. The firing, however, 
soon attracted the attention of the rest of his men who rushed to his support. 
Colonels Pickens and Dooly also pressed through the swamp, and the battle 
was renewed with much vigor on the other side of the creek. Bloody and ob- 
stinate was the conflict. For some time the issue seemed doubtful. At length 
the Americans obtained complete possession of the hill; and the enemy, routed 
at all points, fled from the scene of action leaving seventy of their number dead 
upon the field, and seventy-five wounded and captured. On the part of the 
Americans, nine were slain and twenty-three wounded. To Colonel Clarke 
great praise is due for his foresight and activity in comprehending and check- 
ing, at its earliest stage, the movement of the loyalists beyond the swamp. 
Had they succeeded in effecting a permanent lodgment upon the hill, the for- 
tunes of the day would have proved far otherwise. This engagement lasted for 
one hour and forty-five minutes, and during most of that time was hotly con- 
tested. 

As the guard having charge of the prisoners captured when Boyd crossed 
the Savannah River heard of tiie disaster which had overtaken the main body, 
they voluntarily surrendered themselves, thirty-three in number, to those 
whom they held in captivity, promising, if allowed to return in peace to their 
homes, to take the oath of allegiance to the confederated States. 

The battle ended. Colonel Pickens waited upon Colonel Boyd and ten- 
dered him every relief in his power. Thanking him for his civility, the loyalist 
chief, disabled by mortal wounds and yet brave of heart, inquired particularly 
with regard to the result of the engagement. When told that the victory 
rested entirely with the Americans, he asserted that the issue would have been 
different had he not fallen. During the conversation which ensued, he stated 
that he had set out upon this march with eight hundred men. In crossing the 
Savannah River he sustained a loss of one hundred in killed, wounded, and 
missing. In the present action he had seven hundred men under his com- 



Royalist Defeats. 



79 



mand. His expectation was that McGirth, with five hundred men, would form 
a junction with him on Little River either that very afternoon or on the ensu- 
ing morning. The point named for this union of forces was not more than six 
miles distant from the place where this battle had been fought. Alluding to 
his own condition, he remarked that he had but a few hours to live, and re- 
quested Colonel Pickens to detail two men to furnish him with water, and to^ 
inter his body after death. Delivering to that officer certain articles of value 
which he had upon his person, he asked the favor that they be forwarded to 
his wife with a letter acquainting her with the circumstances of his demise and 
burial. These dying injunctions were carefully observed. He was a corpse 
before morning. 

Dispirited by the loss of their leader, and stunned by the heavy blow which 
had fallen upon them in an unexpected moment, the followers of this danger- 
ous chieftain scattered in various directions. Some fled- to Florida; others 
betook themselves to the Creek nation ; others still sought refuge among the 
Cherokees; others returned to their homes and craved mercy at the hands of 
the patriots; while a remnant, under the command of Colonel Moore, number- 
ing some two hundred, retreated to Augusta. 

Dismayed at the defeat which had overtaken Colonel Boyd, and pausing 
not to retrieve the fortunes of the day, McGirth fled precipitately to Augusta 
and rejoined the forces under Colonel Campbell. The prisoners captured at 
Kettle Creek were carried to South Carolina, tried, found guilty of treason^ 
and sentenced to death. Only five of the most noted offenders were executed. 
The others were pardoned. Departing from the field of action, the Americans 
encamped for the night in a locality near the present town of Washington, 
and, on the 15th, recrossed the Savannah River. In the aflair at Carr's Fort^ 
and in the engagement at Kettle Creek, the Americans possessed themselves 
of some six hundred horses and a large quantity of arms, equipments, and 
clothing. This accession to the scanty stores of the patriots was most oppor- 
tune and valuable. In the general gloom which was encompassing all, this vic- 
tory shone like a star of substantial hope, dissipating despair, and enkindling 
confidence in the hearts of the Revolutionists. From the banks of this insig- 
nificant stream, rendered historic by the prowess of Pickens, Dooly, Clarke and 
their valiant followers, there arose a martial shout which proclaimed the restora- 
tion of Whig ascendency in Upper Georgia and the discomfiture of the roy- 
alist cohorts. With no uncertain sound did the bugle- blasts, then blown, sum- 
mon to further feats of patriotic emprise and admonish the king's officers that 
Georgia was not wholly within their grasp. 

This battle was quickly followed by movements which, although partial in 
their character, indicated that the love of liberty and the spirit of resistance 
were abroad in the land. Advancing with a portion of his brigade and some 
of the Georgia militia, General Andrew Williamson encamped not far from 



So History of Augusta. 



Augusta, on the Carolina side of the S.ivannah River. Colonel Leonard Mar- 
bury, with fifty draf^oons and a body of militiamen, took post near Browns- 
borough. Colonel John Twiggs, having assembled the militia of Richmond 
county and passed in rear of the British occupying Augusta, surprised one of 
their outposts at Herbert's, where seventy men were stationed. In the assault 
several of the assailed were killed and wounded, and the rest forced to an un- 
conditional surrender. 

A reconnoitering party of twenty of the King's Rangers, under the com- 
mand of Captain Whitley and Lieutenants McKenzie and Hall, was sent to 
Brownsborough to ascertain if there was an American force assembling in that 
quarter. Through his scouts obtaining information of Whitley's position and 
force, Colonel Marbury detached Captain Cooper with twelve dragoons to gain 
the enemy's rear, while he advanced in front. So rapidly did Cooper execute 
this order that he surprised Whitley and his part}' at dinner, and captured the 
whole of them before Colonel Marbury came up. Hall, who was a native of 
South Carolina, iiad formerly been in the American service. While in com- 
mand of a small fort on the frontier of that State, he treacherously surrendered 
it to the Cherokee Indians, and permitted, without remonstrance, every man, 
woman and child within its walls to be butchered by the savages. He was 
now sent to the jail at Ninety-Six for safe keeping. In due season he was tried, 
found guilty of treason, and condemned to be hung. The death penalty was 
visited upon him on the 17th of April. He miserably perished, confessing his 
crimes and acknowledging the justice of his sentence.^ 

In the disturbed state of affairs, instances of personal daring and hair- 
breadth escapes were not infrequent. Desirous of acquiring a definite knowl- 
edge of the force and position of the enemy in Augusta, General Elbert sent 
Lieutenant Hawkins to obtain the necessary information. While nearing an 
outpost, he was overtaken at Bear Swamp by three Tories. To avoid them was 
impossible. Advancing resolutely towards them, he inquired who they were, 
and whither they were going. The answer was that they were on their way 
to join Colonel Daniel McGirth. Hawkins, who was wearing an old British 
uniform, responded that he was McGirth; that ho believed they were rebels, 
and that he should proceed to hand them over to his party, near at hand. 
They protested to the contrary; and, to demonstrate the truth of their assertion, 
at Hawkins's suggestion, placed their rifles upon the ground and held up their 
right hands. As they did this. Lieutenant Hawkins advanced upon them with 
pistols cocked and presented. Taking up their rifles, he ordered them to march 
in front of him, threatening to shoot the first who attempted to turn. In this 
manner did he conduct them to the American camp.- 

The Tories in Upper Georgia having been completely routed, and the 

'See McCall's History of Georgia, vol. ii. pp. 194,-205. Savannah. 1816. 
" See Stevens's Hisfory of Georgia, no), ii. p. 193. Philadelphia. 1859. 



I 



Affair near Fulsom's Fort. 



Americans daily becoming more formidable in numbers and pronounced in 
their demonstrations, Colonel Campbell determined to evacuate his advanced 
position at Augusta. Accordingly, late in February, he commenced his re- 
treat, which did not terminate until he reached Hudson's ferry on the Savan- 
nah River, where Lieutenant- Colonel Prevost had constructed a fortified camp 
and mounted some field artillery. In the end, so suddenly did he quit Au- 
gusta, that he paused not to destroy a considerable quantity of provisions 
which he had there accumulated. During this retrograde movement he was 
much annoyed by the Americans, who, in small bodies, harassed his command 
in flank and rear. 



CHAPTER Vni. 

Affair near Fulsom's Fort — Augusta Designated as the Seat of Government —An Oli- 
garchical Form of Government Inaugurated — Political History of the Period — Communica- 
tion to General Lincoln — Governor Wright's Report on the Situation. 

GENERAL Benjamin Lincoln's plans for the relief of Georgia were twice 
thwarted, once by the surprise and defeat of General Ash, in the angle 
formed by the confluence of Brier Creek and the Savannah River, by Colonel 
Campbell, and a second time by General Prevost's demonstration against 
Charles-Town. Upon his retreat from Augusta Colonel Campbell had been 
pursued by General Ash as far as Brier Creek. Finding that he could not 
overtake the enemy, that officer halted and formed a camp most injudiciously 
located and carelessly guarded, from which, by a rapid counter-blow from his. 
capable antagonist, he was driven in confusion and with great loss. 

Encouraged by the signal defeat of Boyd at Kettle Creek, and the subse- 
quent evacuation of Augusta by the king's forces, the Georgians, who had fled 
from the region to South Carolina for security, returned with their families and 
personal property and reoccupied their small forts and plantations. Scarcely 
had they done so when they were alarmed by the approach of a body of Creek 
Indians, led by Tate and McGilHvray, Indian agents in the employ of the British. 
Colonel Pickens, with two hundred men of his regiment, quickly came to the 
assistance of the Georgians. Colonel Dooly was already in the field with one 
hundred mounted men, while Colonel Elijah Clarke, with his command, guarded 
the frontier. Every male inhabitant of sixteen years and upwards appeared 
with arms in his hands. At Wrightsborough Colonels Pickens and Dooly were 
reinforced by detachments from the regiments of Colonels Few and Leroy 
Hammond, and by two troops of horse under Major Ross. The Indians were 
encamped near Fulsom's fort. Approaching under cover of the night, Lieuten- 
11 



82 History of Augusta. 

ants Alexander and Williamson, who had been detailed for the purpose, made 
a reconnoissance vvhicii led them to estimate the force of the enemy at eight 
hundred. Upon receiving their report Colonel Pickens, to whom the com- 
mand was confided, marched his column rapidly forward in the hope of reach- 
ing the Indian camp and surprising it before daylight. Some treacherous ras- 
cal advised the enemy of his approach. Unwilling to breast the attack, the 
Indians, breaking up into small parties, fled in every direction. In the pursuit 
which ensued, some of the savages were overtaken and slain. Major Ross, 
Captain Newsom and Lieutenant Bentley were killed. Quiet was restored, 
and the enemy was utterly expelled from the territory. 

Upon the capture of Savannah, in December, 1778, by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Campbell, the executive council designated Augusta as the seat of government. 
So rapidly, however, did that officer push his column up the Savannah River, 
and so quickly did he occupy Augusta with his troops, that until his evacua- 
tion of that place, late in February, 1779, it existed but in name as the capital 
of Georgia. During this period the republican government of the State was 
peripatetic. In such a condition was it frequently found during the continuance 
of the Revolutionary struggle. The public records had been sent out of the 
State for safe keeping. Until the close of the contest the proceedings of the 
executive council consisted of little more than insignificant orders and letters, a 
meager journal of its convocations, hasty deliberations and adjournments, and 
a scant memorandum of its principal acts touching the general safety. The 
treasury was empty. There was not even an attempt made to levy and collect 
taxes. Paper bills of credit, issued upon the faith of the State, had depreciated 
in value to such an extent that they possessed scarcely any purchasing power. 
All sorts of shifts were resorted to in order that the troops in the field might 
be supplied with food and clothing. Of payment in money for military ser- 
vices rendered there was often none, especially in the case of the militia. The 
currency employed in paying off" troops enlisted in the Continental service was 
almost as valueless as were the promises to pay circulated by the State. Not 
infrequently the confiscated property of royalists was utilized in discharging 
the obligations incurred in the purchase of necessaries for the soldiers in the 
field.^ Simple in the extreme was the machinery of government. The affairs 

' In illustration of this, let the following suffice : 

"In Council, April 30, 1782. 
"Captain Harris : 

" Sir : As you are appointed Agent for the County of Richmond to collect all sequestered 
property, you will please immediately to take in your possession two negro wenches, the prop- 
erty of Curtis Colwell, in possession of Oreenbury Lee and Simon Beckum, and two negroes^ 
a Boy and a Girl, in possession of Wm. Few, Sr., the property of Simon Nichols, deceased. 

" You will please, after taken the above in possession, to deliver the said Negroes to Captn 
Ignatius Few, they being appraised by Mr. Simon Beckum ; the State having purchased some 
necessarys from Captn Few, the said Negroes are to be received in payment for the articles 
purchased. Stephen Heard, Pres. Col." 



When Augusta again passed into the hands of fhe r.r. ki- 
bars of council convened .here, at the reside, ce of MattZ: Hob" .' ""7' 
a president and transact such business demanded hvtl ' 

within their power. They represented theTf J emergency as lay 

■ conduct sovernmental affairs i„ ^ '"^V' '779- Too lew to organize and 

..■on. and^et iCess^dtr. :": iryTd": '"^ '""'""r °' '"= ^<^"='""- 
son,e n,achi„ery'by which the i ^ t^ of 1 e^t! ^i^h.'b " "" ''°T"' 
the administration of its business fadlitated, on theLTh'of ,uLT""'' '"' 

t::^:^T:::-^-i^-' ^^ whiranXr:;;:^:— 

..wi, r , " ^■^'^■^'^ """^'EORGIA, Richmond County 

Whereas, from the invasion of the British forces in thl- <^t ^^""''^^- ., 
have arisen and still exist ,o Hi=f k .i ■ ^'^'^' S''«^»' ^vils 

which, in a great meas re ha 'T 2°-".>ment of the said State, and 

being carried no such full eff ^ "" ~"^"""-" °f <'- >and from 

•herein pointe ut And w f:: /• "/"^^'".'"^ T'°'" °' ^°^^™-"* 
necessary at this iuncture to adT t ",''""""" '"^'""bent and indispensably 
ducive to the elfa e ha '^ ? '""P°™^^ "°^^ ^= ""^y ^' ™°^t eon- 

the good peon etr he said S^"' '""/T'^y "^ '"= "2>^'s and privileges of 

and ^.ecti^e rutirowl ;„:t ^r; a?f rt^e'eXr oTaV^''^'^"^^ " '^^^^ 

:o'r ::rtVeXr tt:;- !:-- -r '" -'— - -"='= 

prevent, as far al 1; be a! ci;ra"nd'"'f'"™'r ^"' be acknowledged ; to 

Sta e°ar 3' d ;„ :,::"^ ""^'^'"'l ^"^ "^' - "- county of Richmond, in t le 

Of the Sr andir' ;p^l7n:rl:r:^r:^ "- P--- ^■--^ed situation 

and havinc maturelv aifd ' , P"'*"^"' """"^ "'"'^'^y "'e^to, 

the fol,owh,g p sot b aolr'H'K °"r'"'' "^ '^"'^' '° ^^~"""-^ "»' 

the supreme^'uthoTi y heTo o :, a,; Zf 'T "' "' '"" " ^'^"^'^^^ 

of their office, take the^followng oath if: I A^B rLtT "" ''7^^'""°" 

g uctui, VIZ. . 1, A. ±5., elected one of the supreme 



84 History of Augusta. 

executive council of the State of Georgia, do solemnly swear that I will, during 
the term of my appointment, to the best of my skill and judgment, execute the 
said office faithfully and conscientiously, without favor, affection or partiality ; 
that I will, to the utmost of my power, support, maintain, and defend the State 
of Georgia, and use my utmost endeavors to support the people thereof in the 
secure enjoyment of their just rights ^nd privileges ; and that I will, to the best 
of my judgment, execute justice and mercy in all judgments ; so help me God. 

" And we, and each of us, on our parts, as free citizens of the State of 
Georgia aforesaid, do for ourselves nominate, authorize, empower and require 
you, John Wereat, Joseph Clay, Joseph Habersham, Humphrey Wells, William 
Few, John Dooly, Seth John Cuthbert, William Gibbons, sr., and Myrick Davies, 
esqs., or a majority of you, to act as the executive or supreme council of this 
State; and to execute from Tuesday, the 27th inst., to the first Tuesday in 
January next, unless sooner revoked by a majority of the freemen of this State, 
every such power as you, the said John Wereat, Joseph Clay, Joseph Haber- 
sham, Humphrey Wells, William Few, John Dooly, Seth John Cuthbert, Will- 
iam Gibbons, sr., and Myrick Davies, esqs., or a majority of you, shall deem 
necessary for the safety and defense of the State and the good citizens thereof; 
taking care in all your proceedings to keep as near the spirit and meaning of 
the constitution of the said State as may be. 

"And you, the said John Wereat, Joseph Clay, Joseph Habersham, Hum- 
phrey Wells, William Few, John Dooly, Seth John Cuthbert, William Gibbons, 
sr., and Myrick Davies, esqs., or a majority of you, hereby have full power and 
authority, and are authorized, empowered and required to elect fit and dis- 
crete persons to represent this State in Congress, and to instruct the delegates 
so chosen in such matters and things as will tend to the interest of this State 
in particular, and the United States of America in general : the said delegates 
taking care from time to time, to transmit to you. the said council, or other 
authority of the State for the time being, an account of their proceedings in 
Congress aforesaid : to regulate the public treasury of the said State, to borrow 
or otherwise negotiate loans for the public safety: to regulate the militia, and 
appoint an officer, if necessary, to command : to appoint, suspend, and dis- 
charge all civil officers if it shall be found expedient: to demand an account 
of all expenditures of the public mone}', and to regulate the same, and, where 
necessary, order payments of money : to adopt some mode respecting the cur- 
rent money of this State, and for sinking the same: to direct and commission 
the chief justice of the State, or assistant justices, or other justices of the peace, 
and other officers of each county : to convene courts for the trial of offences 
cognizable by the laws of the land in such place or places as you shall think 
fit : always taking care that trial by jury be preserved inviolate, and that the 
proceedings had before such courts be in a summary way so that offenders be 
brought to a speedy trial and justice be amply done as well to the State as to 
the individuals. 



The Executive Council Organized. 85 

" You, or a majority of you, the said council, have full power and hereby 
.are requested, on conviction of ofifenders, to order punishment to be inflicted 
extending to death : and when objects deserving mercy shall be made known 
to you, to extend that mercy and pardon the offense, remit all fines, mitigate 
corporal punishments, as the case may be, and as to you or a majority of you 
shall seem fit and necessary. And you, the said council or a majority of you, 
at all times and places when and where you shall think fit, have hereby full 
power and competent authority to meet, appoint your own president, settle 
your own rules, sit, consult, deliberate, advise, direct, and carry in execution 
all and every act, special and general, hereby delegated to you, and all and 
every such other acts, measures, and things as you or a majority of you shall 
find expedient and necessary for the welfare, safety, and happiness of the free- 
men of this State. • 

" And in case any of the persons herein* appointed to exercise the supreme 
authority as aforesaid shall refuse to act, die, or depart this State, or shall by 
any other means be prevented from exercising the same, then, and in such 
case, you, the said council hereby chosen, or a majority of you, shall, and you 
are hereby authorized, empowered, and required to fill up such vacancies by 
choosing fit and discrete persons or person to act in their or his room and 
stead, which person or persons so chosen is or are hereby invested with every 
power and authority in as full and ample a manner as if they had been ap- 
pointed by this present instrument of writing. 

" And we do hereby declare all officers, civil and military, and all persons, 
inhabitants of this State, subject to and answerable to your authority, and will 
ratify and confirm whatever you may do for or concerning the public weal, 
according to the best of your judgment, knowledge, and ability. And further, 
we do hereby promise you our support, protection, and countenance. 

" In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands this 24th day of July, 
in the year of our Lord 1779." 

This supreme executive council organized temporarily the same day by the 
•choice of Seth John Cuthbert as president pro tempore ; and, on the 6th of 
August, perfected a permanent organization by unanimously electing John 
AVereat president. All the members then took the oath of office prescribed, 
and entered upon the discharge of their important duties. The entire transac- 
tion was abnormal. The choice lay between anarchy and this modified form 
of government. Regular assemblages of the Legislature were, for the time 
being, impracticable It was equally out of the question to evoke an expres- 
sion of the popular will, or to expect a general observance of the provisions of 
the constitution. To the republicans only a fraction of the State remained. 
Blood, turmoil, disquietude and antagonisms were everywhere. The preser- 
vation of at least the semblance of sovereignty was vital to the cause of the 
patriots. Under the circumstances the delegates doubtless acted for the best ; 



86 History of Augusta. 



and, although in this matter they exceeded their powers and proceeded with- 
out constitutional warrant, their action grew out of a condition of affairs most 
peculiar, and was intended to meet an emergency beyond the ordinary con- 
templation of law. In their selection of members of this supreme executive 
council it does not appear either that their judgment was at fault or that their 
confidence was misplaced. Nor did the erection of this temporory government 
fail to secure the endorsement of the patriots of Georgia. It was a war meas- 
ure. By this oligarchy was Georgia ruled for many months, and during the 
entire period there is not even a suggestion that those to whom were committed 
powers so comprehensive were ever guilty of peculation, injustice, infidelity, or 
despotism. Their official conduct was a tribute at once to the individual worth 
of each member of the provisional government, and to the purity, the patriot- 
ism, the honor, and the virtue of the epoch. Brigadier- General Lachlan Mc- 
intosh was now again in Georgia and in command of the forces concentrated 
for the protection of the upper portions of the State. His return was sanctioned 
by Congress in accordance with his earnest desire, approved by General Wash- 
ington, who, on the iith of May, 1779, addressed the following communica- 
tion to that august body : 

" Brigadier- General Mcintosh will have the honor of delivering you this. 
The war in Georgia — being the State to which he belongs — makes him desi- 
rous of serving in the Southern army. I know not whether the arrangements 
Congress have in contemplation may make it convenient to employ him there, 
but I take the liberty to recommend him as a gentleman whose knowledge of 
service and of the country promises to make him useful. I beg leave to add 
that General Mcintosh's conduct, while he acted immediately under my obser- 
vation, was such as to acquire my esteem and confidence, and I have had no 
reason since to alter my good opinion of him." ^ 

Second in command to General Lincoln, he was at all times most earnest 
in devising means for the improvement of the military condition of Georgia 
and in concerting plans for restraining the British forces within the narrowest 
limits. With the supreme council of safety he conferred frequently and most 
freely. The liberation of Georgia from kingly rule lay nearest the hearts of all. 

As indicating the intelligent observation of the members of this supreme 
executive council, and their anxiety to facilitate the redemption of the State, 
we submit this extract from a communication addressed by them to General 
Lincoln on the i 8th of August, 1779 : " A considerable part of the State hav- 
ing been in the immediate possession of the enemy ever since its invasion by 
them, those counties which have held out against them have been constantly 
subject to their incursions and depredations, and, of course, the few militia 
thereof, much harassed with duty ; but their spirits have been kept up with 
the idea of support from the continent and our sister State, otherwise, we 

' The National Portrait Gallery, etc., vol. iii. Philadelphia. 1836. 



Communication to General Lincoln. 87 

apprehend, a total evacuation would long since have taken place by those who 
have firmness enough to sacrifice everything to the cause of America, whilst 
the wavering would have joined the enemy and assisted them in their opera- 
tions against Carolina. 

" The arrival of the advance of General Scott's army, under Colonel Parker 
and Major Jamison, at a very critical juncture, has had the most salutary ef- 
fect that could be expected, for it has infused new spirit into the militia, who 
are now all cheerfully under arms to oppose the concerted invasions of the 
enemy's irregulars and Indians who are at this time making different inroads 
upon us. General Mcintosh has sent out a part of the Continental troops to 
support our militia, and we hope that for the present we shall be able to repel 
the enemy and to keep them from reaping any considerable advantages from 
the the attempts of small parties. But we presume, sir, that we need not 
endeavor to impress your mind with an idea of the feeble resistance we should 
be able to make to any serious attempt of the enemy to subjugate the upper 
parts of the State even with the assistance that General Mcintosh can at this 
time afford us. 

" We believe that it is generally allowed that unless the enemy are consid- 
erably reinforced, they will not make another attempt upon Charlestown ; and 
from a variety of circumstances we are led to hope that they will not receive 
such reinforcement. Should this be the case, there can scarce remain a doubt 
but that they will aim at a total subjugation of Georgia this fall; for we 
cannot in reason suppose that they will keep a considerable body of troops 
immured in Savannah, whilst the back country, so necessary to their quiet sub- 
sistence as well as their future designs, remains unconquered. The large quan- 
tities of grain made in the vicinity of this place, and the numerous herds of 
cattle through all the upper parts of the country must be very considerable 
objects with them, particularly as we know that they cannot even now get 
sufficient supplies of cattle without coming upwards and then fighting for them. 
The frequent skirmishes of our militia with their irregulars, who are employed 
as drovers, evince the truth of this observation ; and should they gain the 
upper parts of this State, we are bold to assert that Carolina would be in a 
very dangerous situation. The great defection of the upper parts of that coun- 
try is well known ; a circumstance on which the enemy found the most san- 
guine hopes, and we have every reason to believe that they continually receive 
encouragement from these people to invade the back country. Nor could the 
enemy wish for a more favorable situation to be joined by them than that by 
Augusta, or anywhere above it, where the river is shallow and the swamps all 
passable. 

" Add to the circumstances already mentioned, which might induce the 
enemy to progress upwards in force, that of having no obstruction to their 
intercourse with the Indians, which is a very capital one, and which will im- 



88 History of Augusta. 



mediately be the case should they effect an entire conquest of this country; 
and unless they should do this, their intercourse will be very precarious and 
uncertain, and we shall always have it in our power to give the most consider- 
able interruption to it. We think this point worth paying the most particular 
attention to, as we are now informed that Indian goods are now imported at 
Savannah, and that the Creek Indians have had no late supply from the Flor- 
idas. Should the trade from this country with the Indians be once open and 
uninterrupted, the enemy will find not the least difficulty, whenever they have 
a mind, in bringing the savages from the frontiers of Carolina. 

" Besides our apprehensions on the above heads, we are fearful that in case 
the British troops should move up this way, the greatest part of the inhabit- 
ants, worn out with fruitless opposition, and actuated by the fear of losing 
their all, would make terms for themselves ; and as the human mind is too apt 
to be led by a natural gradation from one step of infamy to another, we have 
not the least doubt of their joining the enemy against their countrymen in any 
other State. But even should the British commander not bend his force this 
way, a great many families, harassed and unsupported, vv^ould remove far 
northwardly (for which they are already thinking of preparing), and this dan- 
gerous migration nothing but the appearance of support can prevent. 

" With minds forcibly impressed by the operation of such powerful reasons, 
we beg leave to solicit you, sir, in the most serious manner, to order General 
Scott, who, we understand, is on his march southwardly with the rest of his 
troops, immediately to this place. ^ 

" We cannot think that the lower parts of Carolina will be endangered by 
such an order ; for we may reasonably presume that the enemy will never 
penetrate far into that part of the country while a respectable force remains in 
their rear, which would be the case if General Scott and his troops were in 
Georgia." 

The governor of South Carolina was also memorialized to assist with men 
and money in the effort to retain the possession of Upper Georgia and prevent 
the English from accomplishing the entire subjugation of the State. These 
and similar appeals were not in vain, and it may not be denied that the repre- 
sentations and efforts of the supreme executive council of Georgia had much 
to do with bringing about the co-operation between the French army under 
Count d'Estaing and the American forces under Lincoln for the recovery of 
Savannah in the fall of 1779. 

When, in March, 1776, Sir James Wright fled from Savannah and took 
refuge on board his majesty's ship Scarborough, at Tybee Roads, fear fell upon 
all the king's servants holding office in Georgia, and one by one, as opportu- 
nity occurred, they quitted the province. A few of them espoused the cause 
of the Revolutionists, but most of them departed for London. Some sought 

' Aujrusta. 



the republicans from southern cJ.^lLtw^T '"' ""= =^P"'^'°" °f 
first erected, and this was followed by he tab fshmerf'""';"r ' "" ^' 
tion under Lieutenant-Colonel ProZsTlhohM " administra- 

king'sconrmissioners as lieutenant To trl, o Geo::-;^^^ '^7 '"^ 

by Sir James Wright, who, reaching Savannah o^e ,4th ^MT'' 
resumed the gubernatorial office six days afterwa, ds > q f -^"'y- '779. 
factory condition of affairs that he felt onstTain d ,0 ,^^\^™^. "^ ""^^fe- 

would adhere to the independent scheme ' '' '"' '" °PP-'"nit3'. 

wretched situatid^, t s P ov n! s n auT'l " ""T ' .^^ ""™"^'' °^ "« 
lost while the army was carr^LI In 'Lr t ^rLTst sluTcalL^'d^ 
now, my Lord, the Rebels who went from heuce !n,n r 1 , ' "^ 

Colonel Campbell, with other Rebels of Car" na and h ^ "^ "''"' "' 
sessed of the country at and about Aulus and all aLo" 7'^; ,"" ""^ 
honor to inclose your Lordship the informat onlreceived frl ;h" K 7' "" 

BrTcTe'eVrrett " ^'^''T ■"" ^■"■°" -^^^^^^^^t::::i 

pa ys nd that tl e R 7\°\ ' .T'*''"'^ ^'"'''"»" ^^°"' '° --<^ '"<= R^be. 

'o g to est b i 1 a ' ? 7 ,?"''' "P"""^ °f ^'--^ '-"''-d -- and are 
^ ng to establish a po»t with them somewhere in St. George's Parish r 

doubt not, my Lord, however, but this Province will soon rtise ts'eTd and 
become more populous and opulent than ever T I,, j 7 

With regard to the Indians he adds, " I am sorrv tn s,v H,.^ f. , ■ 
mense expense to government on account of Se Inirthe H T """ 
.>e .0 be so hearty in the cause and so warm^Itl^tr reird-^"' '° 
_J^^:;^^^:^nns^l^^U^^ ,he gathering storm, tlfe tlunders of 



1779- 
12 



90 History of Augusta. 



which were soon to shake the foundations of the city of Oglethorpe, Governor 
Wright at Savannah, supported by the king's army, was striving to recreate 
the royal government and to lead back the inhabitants of southern Georgia to 
a complete and orderly submission to British rule. While at Augusta the 
members of the supreme executive council, invested with unlimited powers, yet 
sadly deficient in all material appliances, were endeavoring to perpetuate the 
sovereignty of a republican State just born into the sisterhood of nations, and to 
arm, feed, and clothe a patriot band, few in numbers yet brave of heart, fight- 
ing for home and property and liberty, the odds were seemingly all in favor of 
his majesty King George III. In this conflict between a Republican oligarchy 
and an English monarchy it did really appear that there was little hope for the 
ultimate independence of the bleeding, impoverished, and distracted common- 
wealth. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Posture of Affairs in the Fall of 1779 — Legislation of the Commons House of Assembly — 
Proclamation of Governor Wereat, Governor Walton, General Mcintosh and Mr. Glascock — 
Political Affairs — Movements of the Executive Council — Unseemly Dissentions — Reorganiza- 
tion of the State Government at Augusta. 

THE bloody repulse of the allied army before the lines around Savannah on 
the memorable morning of October 9, 1779, was a grievous disappoint- 
ment to the Georgia patriots. They had confidently anticipated the capture 
of the town and a complete restoration of Republican rule. In a few short 
hours everything was changed from joyous expectation to the deepest gloom 
of helpless despair. After the departure of Count D'Estaing and the retreat of 
General Lincoln the condition of Savannah and the sea coast of Georgia be- 
came more pitiable than at any former period. Exasperated by the formida- 
ble demonstration which, at the outset, seriously threatened the overthrow of 
British dominion in Georgia, and rendered more arrogant and exacting, the 
loyalists set out in every direction upon missions of insult, pillage, and inhu- 
manity. Plundering banditti roved about unrestrained, seizing negroes, stock,, 
furniture, wearing apparel, plate, jewels, and anything they coveted. Children 
were severely beaten to compel a revelation of the places where their parents 
had [concealed, or were supposed to have hidden valuable personal effects 
and money. Confiscation of property and incarceration or expatriation were 
the only alternatives presented to those who clave to the cause of the Revolu- 
tionists. So poor were many of the inhabitants that they could not command 
the means requisite to venture upon a removal. Even under such circum- 
stances not a few, on foot, sought an asylum in South Carolina. Among the 



State of Affairs, Fall of 1779. 



91 



pnncpai sufferers may be mentioned the families of General Mcintosh Colonel 
John Tw,ggs and Colonel Elijah Clarke. Georgia was under ti,e yoke and 
she was forced to pay the penalty of unsuccessful rebellion, rendered e'nfold 
more grievous because of this recent formidable attempt o expel fron t ' 
borders the cv.l and military servants of the king. The ribald lan^ul" and 
hcent,ous conduct of the soldiery, coupled with the insults of lawles^s ,lroes 

especa ly by the weaker sex, almost beyond endurance. Far and nea the 
reg,on had experienced the desolations of war. "The rage between Wh.a'd 
Tory ran so h,gh. says General Moultrie, •• that what was called a Georgia 
parole and to be shot down, were synonymous." So stringent, too were t1 e 
restr,c ,o„s upon trade, such was the depreciation of the pape cur ency a'd 

tl 'd' disr" '^"?" '^™"'""' '"' '°""""''-' ^'^'="'--. "-''pov- 
erty and distress were the common heritage. At this time sixteen hundred 

and eighteen dollars paper money, were the equivalent of one dollarin gold 1 

Fo active participation m the disastrous siege of Savannah, Count Pulaski who 

wit his legion, after General Prevosfs retreat from South Carolina, had ken' 

post on a ndge some fifty miles northeast of Augusta that he might the more 

the same time be w.thm supporting distance of either Charles Town or Savan 
nah as occasion required, was ordered to join General Mcintosh at the latter 
place. Together they moved thence upon Savannah in advance of the army 
under General Lincoln approaching from the direction of Charles Town Tt 

tt F e^ch r"' "'\^*'' °'"'°'''' '"' ^^'^"'"^-'^ communication w^; 
tne t rench troops on the coast. 

the ^cZ" ^'°u'' "'""Z f'""'""^ '" "'" possession of the Revolutionists. In 
te Commons House of Assembly, composed of members chosen under writ 

May 5, 780, there were no delegates from the parish of St Paul 

near S "' ^r""^^^. '"' ""' "^'""^ compelling all persons dwelling in and 
near Savannah and Augusta forthwith to render an account of all male sla^-es 

ZZflt f r"'"^' ""' ""^''^ '°°"^> '° -o^"^ "P°" -d complete 

tne tortihcations of those towns. 

selv!s"trr'' !"'"'"""' "■'"^ ""' °"" ^'^^" ""<= ^^'5'"-d '° '^-b-' 'hen- 
works'. "' °"""" '" ""' ^""^"--"o" °< 'l>e conten,plated defensive 

servlTlooir '"^'f^/J"' ^""'ority to impress horses, carts, and teams for 
service upon the pubhc defenses. 

.iiiiiiip?isg=§i ■ 

greatfacl.tj. Me;no^rs of tA, A^uer^cau /;^,vo/uf^on, vol ii. p. y,. NewYork. 1802. 



92 History of Augusta. 



There was a revision of the mihtia laws, rendering them more stringent in 
their provisions and more certain in their operation. An inquiry was ordered 
into the expediency of organizing a corps of negro slaves and the propriety of 
incorporating it into the militia of the Province. 

All attempts at royal legislation in Georgia during this stormy period were 
spasmodic, partial, feeble, and in the main futile. The hold of his Majesty's 
servants upon the Province was sensibly relaxed. More and more circum- 
scribed grew the limits of royal dominion until they were finally obliterated 
upon the evacuation of Savannah in 1782. The hope of returning Georgia to 
her allegiance to the Crown, inspired by the capture of Savannah in December, 
1778, and revived by the defeat of the allied armies in October, 1779, was al- 
ways fluctuating. Although the governor retained his seat and exercised some 
of the functions of his office, his letters show that he was always oppressed 
by a sense of insecurity. Time and again did the republican forces, under 
partisan leaders, approach so closely that it was deemed dangerous for the 
king's servants to venture beyond the lines which environed Savannah. Now 
and then came a loyal address from the province assuring his majesty that his 
sorely tried, yet faithful office holders, would " use their utmost endeavors to- 
promote an attachment to his person and government and the welfare of the 
British Empire;" that they "would not fail to put up their prayers to Al- 
mighty God that He would pour down His Blessings upon his Majesty, his 
Royal Consort, and his numerous offspring, and that He would give him a long 
and happy reign and that his posterity might sway the sceptre of the British 
Empire till time should be no more." 

And this would be quickly followed by a pitiable representation of the de- 
fenseless condition of the province, and by an application for a force of five 
hundred mounted men with which to scour the country and repel the rebel 
cavalry who were plundering the governor's plantations on the Ogeechee, and- 
thundering at the very gates of Savannah. 

So divided was Georgia that the difficulty experienced by Sir James Wright 
in securing the attendance of members sufficient to form a Commons House of 
Assembly under the royal government, was also encountered by the members 
of the Republican Executive Council in their effiDrts to convene a legislature 
and elect a governor. Since his elevation to the office of president, on the 6th 
of August, 1779, John Wereat,^ in association with the Council, had been dis- 
charging the executive functions of government. On the 4th of November in. 
that year he issued the following proclamation : 

" Augusta, in the State of Georgia, November 4, 1779. 
" Whereas, from the invasion of the State by the enemy, in December last, 

' President Wereat was an active patriot, generous in his sympathies and sound in his 
financial views. He rendered important services to Georgia and her impoverished inhabitants. 
In January, 1788, he was president of the convention which, at Augusta, ratified the Federal 
Constitution. Ten years afterwards his useful career was peacefully ended in Bryan County. 



Proclamation of John Wereat. 95 

the absence of many of the members elected to represent the different counties 
in the House of Representatives for the present year, with unavoidable causes, 
several ineffectual attempts have been made to convene a Legal House of 
Representatives ; and whereas, it is essential to the welfare and happiness of 
the State that a Legal and Constitutional House of Assembly should be con- 
vened : We, therefore, earnestly recommend to such of the citizens of this 
State as have preserved their fidelity to the cause of America, and were inhab- 
itants of the counties of Chatham, Liberty, Glynn, Camden, and Efffngham 
prior to the reduction of these counties by the British forces, to repair to such 
place within this State as to them shall appear most safe and convenient, on 
the first Tuesday in December next, that being the day appointed by the con- 
stitution for a general election throughout the State, in order to elect persons 
to represent those counties in the General Assembly for the ensuing year, that 
a full, free, and equal representation may be had to proceed on business of the 
utmost importance to the community ; and it is the opinion of this Board, that 
this town would be the most eligible, in the present situation of affairs, for the 
meeting of the Assembly, which will be the first Tuesday in January next, 
agreeably to the Constitution of the State. 

" By order of the Board. JOHN Wereat, President.'" 

Upon the departure of the French and American armies from the lines 
before Savannah, many of the leading citizens removed from Southeastern 
Georgia and sought refuge in the vicinity of Augusta. Influenced by the 
persuasions of George Walton, who, released from captivity, was again at 
home, of Richard Howley, George Wells, and of others opposed to the ex- 
ecutive council, these refugees, in association with the citizens of Richmond 
County, resolved themselves into a deliberative body claiming to be the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Georgia. William Glascock, esq., was chosen speaker, and 
George Walton was elected governor of the State. It was openly charged, 
but without warrant, that some of the members of council sympathized with 
the Tories, and that all the proceedings of that body were " illegal, unconsti- 
tutional, and dangerous to the liberties of the State." This self-styled assem- 
bly, which convened at Augusta in November, 1779, also chose George Wal- 
ton as a delegate to congress, and selected an executive council. Thus, at the 
same time were two executive councils actually organized and claiming to 
exercise important functions within the limits of Georgia wasted by a common 
enemy and rent by internal feuds. Violent were the collisions of parties, and 
most confused was the administration of civil affairs. Fortunately there was 
little need for the office either of legislator or of governor. 

While the enemies of the executive council, as at first constituted, were 
thus active in creating dissensions in the body politic and in disturbing the 
general sentiment at an epoch when unity, concord, and confidence were essen- 
tial to the hopes and the plans of the Revolutionists, the members of that asso 
ciation endeavored to counteract these prejudicial influences and to restore 
public harmony by this open declaration of their powers : " Whereas some 
jealousies, natural to a people tenacious of their liberties, have arisen among 



94 History of Augusta. 



some of the citizens of this State respecting the power of this Board ; and 
whereas it behooves the rules of a free country at all times to take every step 
\v\ their power to give all reasonable satisfaction to the inhabitants thereof, and 
to put a stop to such jealousies and complaints as may take place ; and whereas 
the citizens of this State above mentioned conceive, by virtue of the delega- 
tion which authorizes this Board to proceed in the executive department of 
government, they have power to act in the judicial and legislative departments: 
We do hereby declare and make known to all whom it may concern that we 
are not inyested with any such judicial or legislative powers, and that it never 
was nor ever will be our intention to assume to ourselves any such powers by 
virtue of the above mentioned delegation, and that we mean neither to contra- 
dict nor to destroy the constitution of this State which we think must have due 
operation whenever a time of less disquiet will admit of its being adequate to 
the exigency of Government." 

The self-constituted General Assembly was largely composed of malcon- 
tents, men ambitious of power and jealous of the honors accorded to others 
who like themselves were engaged in a lethal struggle for independence. Sad 
Commentary upon human nature which, even amid the throes of empire and 
in the agonies of extreme peril, could not forget its passions or subdue its 
petty animosities ! 

It will be remembered that in consequence of the deplorable want of accord 
between the civil and military authorities in Georgia General Lachlan Mcintosh 
was induced to quit his service at home and seek military employment in a 
distant field. He had now, however, returned ; and, during the bloody as- 
sault of the 9th of October, 1779, had given fresh proof of his courage and of 
his devotion to State and country. During his absence he received a letter 
from George Walton in which he thus commented upon the unfortunate con- 
dition of affairs in Georgia : " The demon Discord yet presides in tliis Country, 
and God only knows when his reign will be at an end. I have strove so hard 
to do good with so poor a return, that were the liberties of America secure I 
would bid adieu to all public employment, to politics, and to strife; for even 
virtue itself will meet with enmity." 

It was General Mcintosh's hope that time had healed all wounds and that, 
without reproach, he would be permitted to devote his time and military talents 
to the defense of Georgia. In this he was mistaken. On the 30th of Novem- 
ber, 1779, a letter, purporting to be signed by William Glascock, speaker of 
the House of Representatives, was transmitted to the president of Congress by 
George Walton, governor of Georgia. Congress was therein assured of the 
dissatisfaction of the people of Georgia at the assignment of General Mcintosh 
to the command of the military in that State. It was earnestly suggested that 
the National Assembly should, while he remained in the service of the United 
States, indicate "some distant field for the exercise of his abilities." So thor- 



Political Dissentions. 95 



oughly did this forgery, backed by the representation of General Mcintosh's 
enemies, poison the minds of the members of that body that they voted, on the 
15th of February, 1780, to "dispense with the services of Brigadier- General 
Mcintosh until the further order of Congress." 

When informed of this communication, General Mcintosh demanded an 
explanation from its alleged author. Mr. Glascock promptly denied the au- 
thenticity of the document in the following letter, dated Augusta, Georgia, May 
12, 1780, and addressed to the president of Congress: — 

" Sir, — I am now to do myself the honor of addressing your Excellency 
on a subject of considerable importance to myself and to a gentleman whose 
character both as a citizen and an officer I esteem and honor. Indeed I take 
up the affair on a larger scale ; I may say it is also of importance to this State 
and the whole Confederate alliance, as it strikes at the very root of reciprocal 
confidence, and opens a road to misrepresentation, detraction, and malice 
which cannot be guarded against but with the utmost circumspection, and 
which, if not checked, might be productive of the most serious consequences 
to these States either in a civil or a military sense. Brigadier General Mc- 
intosh informs me that he lately received a letter from your Excellency enclos- 
ing the following extract of a letter to Congress from me, as Speaker of the 
Assembly of the State of Georgia : 

" ' It is'to be wished that we could advise Congress that the return of Brig- 
adier- General Mcintosh gave satisfaction to either the Militia or the Confeder- 
ates, but the common dissatisfaction is such, and founded on weighty reasons, 
that it is highly necessary that Congress would, whilst that officer is in the ser- 
vice of the United States, direct some distant field for the exercise of his abili- 
ties.' 

" I am sorry, Sir, to be informed by this extract of the extreme malice and 
rancour of General Mcintosh's enemies; but at the same time I enjoy a pecu- 
liar happiness in having it in my power to defeat their nefarious machinations 
and intentions. I do hereby most solemnly declare to Congress that the above 
extract is a flagrant forgery, of which I disclaim all knowledge whatever either 
directly or indirectly. Neither did I ever subscribe in a public or private 
capacity any letter or paper that could convey to Congress such an idea of that 
Officer with respect to his Country which he has, in my opinion, served with 
reputation, and from which he ought to receive the grateful acknowledgments 
of public approbation instead of the malicious insinuations of public slander, in 
which class I am under the necessity of ranking the forged letter which is the 
subject of this. 

" I am glad of the opportunity of informing Congress that so far is that for- 
gery from truth, that I believe there is not a respectable citizen or officer in 
Georgia who would not be happy in serving under General Mcintosh, nor one 
in either class who would be otherwise except a few who are governed by de- 
sign or self interest." 



g6 History ov Augusta. 



Mr. Glascock also furnished General Mcintosh with a copy of this commu- 
nication. 

Strange as it may appear, an examination into the matter disclosed the 
fact that this letter, to which the name of the speaker of the House of Assem- 
bly was forged, was suggested, dictated, and forwarded by Governor Walton 
and certain members of his council with a design of impairing the influence of 
General Mcintosh and compassing his removal from the military command in 
Georgia. Fortunately this malevolent and nefarious scheme failed to accom- 
plish the unlawful result at which it aimed. So far from injuring the popular- 
ity of the meritorious officer whose valuable services were called in question, it 
drew down upon its authors the condemnation of all fair-minded people. 

Upon the conclusion of the Revolutionary War this whole affair formed a 
subject of review by the legislature of Georgia. On the journals of the House 
of Assembly the following resolutions are entered under date of January 30, 

1783:^ 

" Resolved that they have examined such papers and persons as have been 
offered by the different parties, from which it appears that the resolves of Coun- 
cil, dated at Augusta, December 12th, 1779, and the letter from Governor Wal- 
ton to the President of Congress, dated December 15th, 1779, respecting Gen- 
eral Mcintosh were unjust, illiberal, and a misrepresentation of facts : that the 
letter said to be from William Glascock, speaker of the Assembly, dated No- 
vember 30th, 1779, addressed to the President of Congress, appears to be a 
forgery, in violation of law and truth, and highly injurious to the interest of 
the State, and dangerous to the rights of its citizens; and that the Attorney 
General be ordered to make the necessary inquiries and enter such prosecu- 
tions as may be consistent with his duty and office. 

" Resolved that General Mcintosh be informed that this House does enter- 
tain an abhorrence of all such injurious attempts made use of, as appears by 
the papers laid before them, to injure the character of an officer and citizen of 
this State who merits the attention of the Legislature for his early, decided, 
and persevering efforts in the defense of America, of which virtue this House 
has the highest sense." 

With remarkable inconsistency, the Legislature on the day before these 
resolutions were adopted, had elected George Walton chief justice of the State 
of Georgia. If the attorney-general ever instituted any proceedings, we are 
not advised. 

Short was Governor Walton's^ gubernatorial career consequent upon his 

1 See McCall's History of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 293. Savannah, 1816. 

*"It is an irrefragable evidence," says John Sanderson in his Biography of the Signers to 
the Declaration of Independence (vol. ill. p. 166, Philadelphia, 1823), " of the great talents of 
Mr. Walton and of their proper appreciation by the people of Georgia that during the remainder 
of his life he held, in almost uninterrupted succession, the most respectable appointments that 
the government could confer upon him. There are indeed few men in the United States upon 



Movements of the Executive Council. 97 

election in November, 1779. By the General Assembly Richard Howley was^ 
on the 4th of January, 1780, elected governor, and William Glascock speaker 
of the House. Edward Telfair, George Walton, Benjamin Andrew, Lyman 
Hall, and William Few were appointed members of Congress. George Wells,. 
Stephen Heard, John Lindsay, and Humphrey Wells were constituted mem- 
bers of the executive council. Of this body George Wells was chosen presi- 
dent. The office of chief justice was filled by the selection of William Stephens, 
and that of attorney-general by John Milledge. Colonel John Stark and Cap- 
tain Hardy were elected treasurers. Edward Jones was made secretary of 
State, and Joseph Clay paymaster- general. 

Composed largely of the friends of Walton and Howley, this assembly crit- 
cised severely the former council, and accused its members of "exercising 
powers and authorities unknown to and subversive of the constitution and laws 
of this State." It even went so far as to declare that "said council and the 
powers they exercised were illegal and unconstitutional." And yet, within a 
month, this assembly, which had thus pronounced null and void the action of 
the former council and denounced it as lawless in conception and operation, 
moved by the exigency of the period, and anticipating it might happen, dur- 
ing the progress of the war, " that the Ministers of government of this State 
might not be able to do or transact the business of the State within the limits 
of the same," unanimously re'solved "that his Honor the Governor, or, in his- 
absence, the President and Executive Council, may do and transact all and 
every business of government in as full, ample, and authoritative manner im 
any other State within the Confederation, touching and respecting of this- 
State, as though it had been done and. transacted within the limits of this 
State." 

Informed of the arrival of large reinforcements in Savannah, the ultimate 
destination of which was not then well ascertained. Governor Howley issued a 
stirring proclamation "commanding and requiring the people to stand firm to 
their duty, and exert themselves in support and defense of the great and glo- 
rious independency of the United States: and also to remember with gratitude 
to Heaven that the Almighty Ruler of human affairs hath been pleased to raise 
up the spirit and might of the two greatest powers in the world [France and 
Spain] to join with them and oppose and destroy the persecutor of their liber- 
ties and immunities." 

General Lincoln was censured by the legislature for withdrawing the con- 
tinental troops from Georgia, and was pronounced "answerable for all the con- 

whom more extensive and solid proofs of public confidence have been lavished. He was si.x 
times elected a representative to Congress, twice governor of the State, once a senator of the 
United States, and four times judge of the Superior Courts ; the latter office he held during 
fifteen years and until the day of his death. He was one of the commissioners on the part of 
the United States to negotiate a treaty with the Cherokee Indians in Tennessee, and several 
times a member of the State legislature." 

13 



98 History of Augusta. 



sequences which may follow that unadvised measure." The governor was in- 
structed to concentrate half the militia of the State at Augusta, and Colonel 
John Twiggs, with his command and as many volunteers as he could secure, 
was requested to take post at that point. 

Aware of the defenseless condition of this town, which " might be surprised 
by twenty men," and deeming it "unsafe and impolitic for the Governor and 
Council to remain thus exposed," the assembly designated Heard's Fort, in 
Wilkes County, as a suitable "place of meeting for transacting the business of 
the government of this State as soon after leaving Augusta as may be." 

Responding to this suggestion the executive council did, on the 5th of Feb- 
ruary, adjourn to assemble at Heard's Fort, which thereupon became the tem- 
porary capital of the State. Brief was the gubernatorial term of service of 
Governor Howley. He left Georgia to take his seat in the Continental Con- 
gress, and the Hon. George Wells, the president of council and three mem- 
bers of the board were announced as fully competent for the transaction of all 
public business. "The value of paper money," says Captain McCall,^ was at 
that time ?o much reduced that the governor dealt it out by the quire for a 
night's lodging for his party; and, if the fare was anything extraordinary, the 
landlord was compensated with two quires." 

President Wells dying, Stephen Heard, of Wilkes County was elected, on 
the 1 8th of February, president of council. He was, during the absence of 
Governor Howley, governor dc facto of republican Georgia, which, at that 
time, could practically claim the allegiance of only two counties, — Richmond 
and Wilkes. That portion of the State lying south of a line drawn from Hud- 
son's ferry on the Savannah River to the Ogeechee River was in the possess- 
ion of the British. 

"Thus was Georgia reduced to the verge of political death. The govern- 
ment, such as it was, was administered by President Heard, and a few mem- 
bers of the Council in Wilkes County; and when Mr. Heard retreated to North 
Carolina, Myrick Davies was chosen president in his place. The condition of 
the Republicans in Georgia was indeed deplorable. Driven from Savannah 
and the seaboard, compelled to evacuate Augusta, hemmed in by hostile In- 
dians on the frontier, and confined mostly to a few settlements in and around 
Wilkes County, they lived in daily peril, had almost daily skirmishes with 
Regulars, Tories, or Indians, were harrassed with alarms, were surprised by 
ambuscades, were pinched with want, and had one long bitter struggle for sim- 
ple existence, with scarcely a ray of hope to light up the future." - 

Moreover, unseemly dissensions had arisen among leading citizens, and the 
land was a prey alike to external and internal foes. Most difficult was it to 
maintain even a show of civil authority and to support a tolerable administra- 



'■ Ht'sfory of Georgia, vol. ii. ]). 303. Savannah. 1816. 

'Stevens's History of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 331. Philadelphia. 1859. 



Reorganization of the State Government. 99 

tion of justice. Many good men went into voluntary exile, bewailing the ex- 
stence of evils which they were unable either to mitigate or to remove. 

At this darkest epoch, when English arms had gained the ascendency not 
only in Georgia but also in Carolina, when the principal towns of those States 
were in the possession of the enemy, and the territory on both sides of the 
Savannah was largely subservient to British rule, it was noised abroad that a 
new commission would soon issue from the Court of St. James for the purpose 
of again sounding the temper of America upon the subject of a pacification. 
It was boldly hinted that Georgia, and perhaps South Carolina, in any nego- 
tiations would not be recognized as a part of the American Union, but would 
be excluded on the ground that they had "been again colonized to England 
by new conquest." In Europe the " ?/// possidetis" was much talked of as a 
"probable basis for the anticipated peace." Against this doctrine and its 
practical application George Walton, William F^ew and Richard Howley, then 
representing Georgia in the Continental Congress, prepared and published a 
manly and earnest protest^ which was not without influence. After represent- 
ing in their true colors the excellences possessed by Georgia, her natural re- 
sources, and the advantages which resulted from her union with sister Ameri- 
can States, they insisted that she was a material component part of the Con- 
federation, and that she could not be abandoned or given up without endan- 
gering the integrity of that union. The public was reminded that all the colo- 
nies had joined in one common cause, and had sacrificed their blood and for- 
tunes in its support. Rightly did they contend that it would be "unjust and 
inhuman for the other parts of the Union separately to embrace the result of 
the common efforts and leave them [Georgia and Carolina] under the yoke of 
a bankrupt and enraged t} rant." The suggestion shocked the sentiments of 
the allied patriots; and the doctrine of /////^i'j'/c/^'/'zjr, if seriously entertained, 
was thoroughly eliminated from all discussions and deliberations contemplat- 
ing the establishment of amicable relations between England and her revolted 
colonies. 

On the i6th of August, 1781, Dr. Nathan Brownson was elected governor, 
and Edward Telfair, William Few, Dr. Noble Wimberley Jones and Samuel 
Stirk were appointed delegates to Congress. The skies were biightening. Au- 
gusta h.id been rescued from the possession of the enemy, and renewed efforts 
were being made for the recovery of other portions of the State. 

Eight days after his induction into office. Governor Brownson. with the in- 
tention of strengthening the manhood of the State, issued a p'-oclamation re- 
quiring all persons who considered themselves citizens of Georgia to return 
home within specified periods under penalty of being subjected to the pay- 
ment of a treble tax to be levied upon all lands owned by them within the limits 
of the State. Many wanderers were thus recalled who, having forsaken their 

1 Obser-vations upon the Effects of Certain Late Political Suggestions : by the Delegates 
of Georgia, pp. lo. Philadelphia. MDCCCLXXXI. 



loo History of Augusta. 



plantations in Georgia, had sought refuge in South and North Carolina, and in 
Virginia. 

The machinery of State government was further organized by this legisla- 
ture, assembled in Augusta, — of which John Jones was the speaker, — by the 
election of John Wereat as chief justice, Samuel Stirk as attorney- general, 
James Bryan as treasurer, and John Milton as secretary of State. Provision 
was made for reopening the courts of justice, and assistant judges were elected 
for each county. It was then the duty of the chief justice to preside at the 
superior courts of all the several counties, and the terms were so arranged as 
to permit his presence. In each county he was aided by the assistant justices 
selected for the county. For the more efficient organization and control of 
the militia the following officers were chosen : 

For the County of Wilkes: Elijah Clarke, colonel; John Cunningham, lieu- 
tenant-colonel ; and William Walker, major. 

For the County of Richmond : Josiah Dunn, colonel ; Isaac Jackson, lieu- 
tenant-colonel ; and Joshua Winn, major. 

For Lower Richmond: James Martin, colonel; James McNiel, lieutenant- 
colonel ; and Archibald Beal, major. 

For the County of Burke: Asa Emanuel, colonel; James McKay, lieuten- 
ant-colonel; and Francis Boykin, major. 

For the County of Effingham : Caleb Howell, colonel ; Stephen Johnson, 
lieutenant- colonel ; and Daniel Howell, major. 

For the County of Chatham: George Walton, colonel; John Martin, lieu- 
tenant-colonel; and Charles Odingsell, major. 

For the County of Liberty : John Baker, colonel; Cooper, lieutenant- 
colonel ; and James Maxwell, major. 

To the governor was allowed a salary at the rate of £s^'^ P^^ annum ; to 
the chief justice, a salary of i^300 ; to the attorney- general, a salary of ;{J"200 ; 
to the treasurer, a salary of ^^150 ; to the secretary of State, a salary of ^loo; 
to the clerk of council and assembly, a salary of ^75 ; and to the messenger of 
council, a salary of ^,"50 The delegates to the Continental Congress were 
entitled to a sum sufficient to defray all their expenses incurred in going to, 
attending upon, and in returning from Congress. 

Governor Brownson was a leading physician of Southern Georgia, public- 
spirited, wise in counsel, and an early and earnest supporter of the plans of the 
Revolutionists. Twice had he served his people as a member of the Conti- 
nental Congress. Among the purest patriots of Liberty County will he always 
be numbered. 

In the early part of December, 1781, the council was called upon to mourn 
the loss of the Honorable Myrick Davies, recently its president, who was in- 
humanly slain by the Royalists. The headquarters of the board had for sometime 
been fixed at Howell's plantation in Burke county. On the i ith of December, 
,1781, the following minute appears in the journal of the executive council: 



Governor Martin Elected. ioi 

"Resolved, that his honor the governor be requested to take measures for 
conveying the body of the late Myrick Davies, Esqr., president of the Execu- 
tive Council, to this place, ^ and that Mr. Lewis be requested to prepare a proper 
discourse for his interment, and this Board will attend the same." 

On the 2d of January, 1782, Stephen Heard was for a second time elected 
president of council. 

By the legislature, which convened in Augusta on the ist of January, 1782, 
was John Martin, an active defender of the liberties of his country and a lieu- 
tenant-colonel in the continental line of the Georgia brigade, elected governor. 
William Gibbons was selected as speaker. This body remained in session only 
about ten days, and was subsequently, by proclamation of the governor, con- 
vened at Augusta on the 17th of April. 

Already were indications of a successful issue to the impending conflict be- 
coming apparent, and the hearts of the Revolutionists were cheered by the 
approach of a strong army for the reclamation of Georgia. 

Encouraged by the prospect, Governor Martin, in his inaugural address, 
thus felicitated the members of the legislature : " I am extremely happy in 
finding that the virtuous struggles made by the good citizens of this State 
against our cruel and unnatural enemies have at length nearly secured to us 
those blessings for which we have so long contended, and, I doubt not, but by 
a continuance of those exertions and the support we have reason to expect, 
we shall in a short time reap the happy fruits of our labors." 

It was under his administration that Georgia was rescued from British do- 
minion and the commonwealth restored to the full exercise of all legislative, 
executive, and judicial powers. He was the governor whose good fortune it 
was to behold the successful termination of the Revolution, and to witness the 
public recognition of Georgia as a sovereign State. 



CHAPTER X. 

Augusta Evacuated by Williamson, and Occupied by Brown and Grierson — Barbarous 
Cruelties Perpetrated by Them — Colonel Clarke's Attempt to retake Augusta — Narrative of the 
Incidents Connected with the Affair — Governor Wright's Dispatches — Sad! Plight of the Rev- 
olutionists—Colonel Brown. 

HAVING in this summary of the political history of Georgia during this 
period of uncertainty, distraction, poverty and desolation, anticipated in 
some measure the progress of events, let us turn to the military affairs imme- 
diately affecting the fortunes of the town of Augusta. 

Many of the refugees from Southern and Middle Georgia experienced great 

* Augusta, 



102 History of Augusta. 



difficulty in placing their families and personal property in localities exempt 
from danger. Some, foreseeing the privations to which their wives and chil- 
dren would be subjected, repented of their patriotic purpose and availed them- 
selves of the protection offered by the Crown. Others, unable to defray the 
charges incident upon a removal, and filled with a heroic desire to consecrate 
their lives to the military service of the Confederacy, bade farewell to their 
homes and commended their all to the chances of war and the God of battles. 

Merciless was the conflict waged between Royalists and Republicans. The 
former, inflamed with hatred and eager for rapine, spared neither age nor sex. 
Ruin marked their footsteps, and their presence was a signal for theft, torture, 
murder, and crimes without a name. Revenge and retaliation prompted the 
Republicans to many bloody deeds which can scancely be excused even in a 
defensive war, — that most justifiable of all conflicts, where life, liberty, prop- 
erty, and country are at stake. Dark is the picture from whatever light it may 
be viewed, and not a few of the scenes there depicted were, beyond controversy, 
inspired by Moloch. 

Brigadier- General Andrew Williamson, with three hundred men, was now 
encamped near Augusta. Although composed of militia, this was, numerically 
considered, the most formidable force then assembled at a single point for the 
defense of republican Georgia. While encouraging Colonel Clarke with the 
suggestion that he would accede to a concentration of forces and unite in the 
suppression of the Royalists in Upper Carolina, he held the king's protection 
in his pocket and meditated an act of infamy. Unable either to read or write, 
he entrusted the details of his command to his aid-de-canip, Malcolm Brown, 
who had long given evidence of his attachment to the royal cause. Conceal- 
ing for some time the information he had received of the fall of Charlestown, 
he subsequently, upon the approach of the British detachments, called his offi- 
cers together, expressed the opinion that further resistance would prove inef- 
fectual, and recommended them to return to their homes and there accept the 
protection offered at the hands of the king's servants. He thereupon aban- 
doned his command. For this traitorous act he was rewarded by a colonel's 
commission in his majesty's service ; and, until the close of the war. was recog- 
nized as a warm advocate of the re-establishment of the royal government.^ 

Upon the disbanding of this force Augusta was occupied by Colonels Brown 
and Grierson, two notorious partisan officers in the king's army The former 
had been a resident of that town prior to the inception of the war. His con- 
duct and language had then been so offensive and insulting to the friends of 
liberty that he was finally arrested by the parish committee, tried, tarred and 
feathered, and exposed to public ridicule in a cart drawn by three mules. This 
ignominous punishment ended, he made his escape to the British, swearing 
vengeance against all patriots. Entrusted now with the command of the town 

' McCall's History of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 304. Savannah. 1816. 



Cruelties of Brown and Grierson. 103 

in the streets of which he had sufifered such gross indignities, he was resolved 
to gratify a revenge sternly cherished, and to repay, with interest, to the citi- 
zens of Augusta the ill-usage he had experienced at their hands. His first 
measure was the sequestration of the property of the Republican inhabitants. 
This was speedily followed by an order banishing, beyond the limits of Georgia, 
all Whig families. Stripped of their possessions and driven from their homes, 
exposed to insults and enduring numberless privations, these proscribed Geor- 
gians were compelled to journey even to the borders of North Carolina, where 
they arrived half famished, broken down by the fatigue and hardships of travel, 
and some of them with constitutions so sadly shattered that all hope of health 
and life had fled.^ The tyrant rejoiced in his supremacy ; and, gloating over 
the sorrows he had wrought, boasted that his 

. . . " great revenge 
Had stomach for them all." 

Emissaries were dispatched into the adjacent country with authority to 
grant protections and exact oaths of allegiance to the British Crown. A party 
thus commissioned, and led by Captain Corker, at dead of night forced an en- 
trance into the dwelling-house of Colonel John Dooly and, in the most bar- 
barous manner, murdered him in the presence of his wife and children. Thus 
perished an officer who had borne himself gallantly in many affairs and de- 
served well of the republic. 

Soon after the affair near Musgrove's Mill, in which Colonel Clarke fought 
with a desperation worthy of all praise and narrowly escaped with his life, that 
noted partisan leader — plucky and powerful, every inch a hero — returned to 
Georgia with his command. Lord Cornwallis had recently addressed a cir- 
cular letter to his subalterns, containing the following severe injunctions: 

"The inhabitants of the Provinces who have subscribed to and taken part 
in this revolt should be punished with the utmost rigour : and also those who 
will not turn out shall be imprisoned and their whole property taken from them 
or destroyed. I have ordered in the most positive manner that every militia 
man who has borne arms with us, and afterward joined the enemy, shall be im- 
mediately hanged. I desire you will take the most rigourous measures to 
punish the rebels in the district in which you command, and that you obey in 
the strictest manner the directions I have given in this letter relative to the 
inhabitants in this country." 

Under color of this authority, cruelties, the most barbarous, were practiced. 
Grievous punishments were inflicted without even the forms of trial. Condem- 
nations and executions occurred, the prisoners being unacquainted with the 
offenses with which they were charged. The morning after this sanguinary 
order was received in Augusta five victims were taken from the jail, and by 
order of Colonel Brown were publicly strangled on the gibbet.^ Confiscations 

' McCall's History of Georgia, vol. ii., p. 320. Savannah. 18 16. 
" McCall's History of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 320. Savannah. 18 16. 



I04 History of Augusta. 

were multiplied, and a reign of terror overspread such portions of Georgia and 
South Carolina as were under the control of the king's forces. Hoping that 
this inhuman order would rouse the manhood of the State to determined resis- 
tance and concentrate the friends of American liberty in a supreme effort for 
its assertion, Colonel Clarke, in association with Lieutenant- Colonel McCall, 
planned an expedition for the capture of Augusta. In the success of the en- 
terprise they were the more inclined to repose confidence because Lord Corn- 
wallis in mustering his forces to oppose General Gates had materially depleted 
the garrison at that point. It was hoped that they might, within a short time, 
by their joint exertions raise an army of one thousand men. With such a 
force it was believed that Brown would be compelled to evacuate his post, and 
that the northern and Avestern divisions of Georgia and South Carolina would 
be speedily restored to their Confederate allegiance. Soap Creek in Georgia,^ 
forty miles northwest of Augusta, was agreed upon as the place of rendezvous. 

Entering Wilkes County about the ist of September, 1780, Colonel Clarke 
succeeded, within less than two weeks, in placing in the field some three hun- 
dred and fifty men. After the most strenuous efforts expended in the western 
part of Ninety-Six district, in South Carolina, Colonel McCall persuaded only 
eighty men to accompany him upon the expedition. A union of these detach- 
ments occurred at Soap Creek at the appointed time. Celerity of movement 
being all important. Colonel Clarke put his column on the march without de- 
lay and, on the morning of the 14th of September, halted near Augusta and 
formed his command for action. The enemy was ignorant of his purpose until 
he appeared before the town. One division, commanded by Lieutenant-Col- 
onel McCall, was instructed to enter Augusta by the lower road. The left di- 
vision, led by Major Samuel Taylor, was ordered to approach by the upper 
road, while Colonel Clarke in person, with the center division, was to effect an 
entrance by the middle or southern road. Moving rapidly and simultaneously 
these divisions advanced upon Augusta. 

Near Hawk's Creek, on the west. Major Taylor fell in with an Indian en- 
campment which he at once carried. The savages retreated upon their allies, 
keeping up a desultory fire as they retired. This assault upon the Indian camp 
gave Colonel Brown the first intimation of the approach of the Americans. 
Taylor pressed on to gain possession of McKay's trading post, denominated 
the White House, and situated about a mile and a half west of Augusta as the 
town then stood. This house was occupied by a company of the King's Ran- 
gers, commanded by Captain Johnston. Thither did the retreating Indians 
betake themselves. Ordering Grierson to reinforce Johnston, Brown advanced 
with the main body of his troops to contest the entrance of the Americans. 
Completely surprised by the center and right divisions, the forts surrendered 
after scarcely a show of resistance. Seventy prisoners and a large quantity of 
Indian presents ^ fell into the hands of the captors. These being secured and 
' Their aggregate value was reckoned at £4,000. 



Attempt to Retake Augusta. 105 

left under the charge of a suitable guard, Colonel Clarke hastened to the assis- 
tance of Major Taylor. 

Meanwhile, Brown and Grierson had joined Johnston and the Indians at the 
White House and entered upon its vigorous defense. Taking possession of 
several small houses to the eastward, Clarke endeavored, under their cover, to 
dislodge the enemy. The attempt proved futile. From eleven o'clock in the 
forenoon until nightfall an irregular fire was maintained between the contend- 
ing parties, but without producing any material impression. It was manifest 
that the enemy could not be driven from his stronghold without the assistance 
of artillery. Sheltering themselves behind the bank of the river, and protected 
by the trees which grew along the margin, such of the Indians as could not be 
accommodated in the White House found security in that locality, and thence 
delivered a careful and an annoying fire. Hostilities ceased with the close of 
the day, and strong guards were posted to prevent the escape of the enemy. 

Under cover of the night Brown materially strengthened his position by 
throwing up earthworks round the house. The space between the weather 
boarding and the ceiling was filled with sand and clay so as to render the 
structure proof against musketry. The windows were secured by boards 
taken from the floors, and loop-holes were constructed at convenient distances. 
Every material at command was utilized in enhancing the defensive power of 
the building. 

The next morning two pieces of light artillery, a four-pounder and a six- 
pounder gun, were transported from Fort Grierson and placed in position so 
as to bear upon the White House. Their carriages not being adapted for field 
service, and their management being unskillful, these guns proved of little 
avail. Captain'^Vfartin, too, the only artillerist in Clarke's command, was un- 
fortunately killed just after the guns were brought into action. A musketry 
fire was directed during the day against the enemy, who evinced no intention 
either of abandoning the post, or of surrendering. 

During the night of the 15th Brown was reinforced by fifty Cherokee In- 
dians, who, well armed, crossed the Savannah in canoes and participated in 
the defense. Before daylight on the morning of the i6th the Americans suc- 
ceeded in driving the Indians from their shelter along the river bank and in 
completely cutting off the garrison from its water supply. Thus was the enemy 
greatly inconvenienced, and the sufferings of the wounded became intense. 
Their cries for water and medical aid were heartrending. A horrid stench, 
arising from the dead bodies of men and horses, enhanced the miseries of the 
situation. Brown, himself, shot through both thighs, was suffering terribly, 
but his desperate courage never for a moment forsook him. Ignoring the tor- 
tures of his wounds, he remained booted at the head of his gallant band, di- 
recting the defense and animating his troops by his presence and example. In 
order to atone in some degree for the absence of water, he ordered all the 

14 



io6 History of Augusta. 

urine to be carefully preserved in earthen vessels found in the store. When 
cold, this was served out to the men, he himself taking the first draught.^ A 
more frightful illustration of the extremity of the situation cannot be imagined. 
Summoned to surrender on the 17th, he promptly refused the demand, and 
warned Colonel Clarke that his present demonstration would eventually bring 
destruction and devastation upon the western division of Georgia. The sum- 
mons was repeated in the afternoon with an avowal of a fixed determination on 
the part of the Americans to reduce the garrison at every sacrifice. Brown's 
only reply was that he should defend himself to the last extremity. Never was 
braver foe brought to bay. His wonderful resolution sustained all his follow- 
ers in their dire distress. 

Upon the appearance of the Americans, Colonel Brown had dispatched 
messengers by different routes to inform Colonel Cruger, at Ninety-Six, of his 
situation, and to urge that reinforcements should be immediately sent to his 
relief Sir Patrick Houstoun, one of these messengers, was the first to reach 
Ninety- Six. He communicated the perilous posture of affairs. Cruger lost 
no tini'^! in repairing to the scene of conflict. During the night of the 17th 
Colonel Clarke was informed by his scouts that Colonel Cruger, at the head 
of five hundred British regulars and royal militia, was advancing by forced 
marches for the succor of the besieged. In direct disobedience of orders many 
of Colonel Clarke's men had gone to Burke county to see their families and 
friends, from whom they had long been separated. Others, actuated b\- the 
love of booty, had decamped, carrying with them the goods which Brown had 
recently received to be distributed as presents among the Indians. 

About eight o'clock on the morning of the i8th the British troops appeared 
on the opposite bank of the Savannah River. In his enfeebled condition, his 
ranks depleted by wounds, death, and desertion. Colonel Clarke was compelled 
to raise the siege. The Americans retreated about ten o'clock, having sus- 
tained a loss of sixty in killed and wounded. Among the former were Cap- 
tains Charles jourdine and William Martin, and William Luckie, a brave and 
much respected }-oung man from South Carolina, who fell earl\- in the contest 
while endeavoring to gain possession of the White House. 

Such of the republicans as were badly wounded were left in the town. Thus 
did Captain Ashby, an officer noted for his bravery and humanit)-, and twenty- 
eight soldiers fall into the hands of the enem\'. He and twelve of the wound- 
ed prisoners were forthwith hung upon the staircase of the White House, where 
Brown was l}"ing wounded, that he might enjoy the demoniacal pleasure of 
gloating over their expiring agonies. Their bodies were then delivered to the 
Indians, who, after scalping and mutilating them, threw them into the river. 
Henry Duke, John Burgamy, Scott Reeden, Jordan Ricketson, Darling, and 

1 See Lee's Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department, \ ol. i. p. 207. Philadel- 
phia. 1S12. 



Incidents Connected with the Affair. 107 

the two brothers Glass, youths of seventeen and fifteen years of age, were 
choked to death under a hastily constructed gibbet. Their fate, however, was 
mild when contrasted with that reserved for other prisoners who were deliv- 
ered into the hands of the Indians that they might be avenged of the losses 
which they had sustained during the siege. Placing their victims in the center 
of a circle, they consigned them to blows, cuts, scalping, burning, and deaths 
most horrible. Seventy savages had fallen at the hands of the Americans, and 
thus did their surviving companions offer sacrifices to their names. The bru- 
talities inflicted by Brown and his followers on this occasion stagger all com- 
prehension and transcend civilized belief 

Major Carter, who accompanied the division assaulting by the upper road, 
encountered a mortal hurt at the door of the White House while endeavoring 
to prevent the enemy from gaining possession of that structure. At great 
hazard he was borne off by his comrades, who conveyed him to the plantation 
of Mrs. Bugg, where he expired a few days afterwards. To him Colonel Clarke 
paid this tribute : '* A man of more bravery than Major Carter never occu- 
pied a space between heaven and earth." 

Among the British slain were Captain Andrew Johnston and Ensign Sil- 
cox, of the Florida Rangers. Brown's command on this occasion consisted of 
two hundred and fifty loyalists, — chiefly Florida Rangers, — an equal number 
of Creek warriors, and fifty Chei.okees. 

Before retiring. Colonel Clarke paroled the officers and men whom hj had 
captured. Among them were Captain James Smith and forty- one of the 
King's Rangers, a commissioned officer and eleven men of De Lancey's corps, 
and a surgeon. In entire disregard of the obligations into which they had en- 
tered, these officers and soldiers resumed their arms immediately upon the de- 
parture of the Americans. 

No sooner had the Republican forces retreated than Colonel Brown sent 
out detachments in every direction to arrest all persons who had participated 
in the siege or sympathized in the effort to recapture Augusta. Captain Kemp, 
with a small party of rangers, surprised Colonel Jones and five companions in 
a house on Beech Island. James Goldwire was killed. Although Jones and 
two of his company were wounded, they succeeded in repelling the rangers 
and in taking refuge in a swamp. While there concealed and awaiting recov- 
ery from his wounds, Jones was discovered and made prisoner. The loyalists 
clamored for his life, which was saved through the personal exertions of Cap- 
tain Wylly, who surrounded him with a guard. 

The entire adjacent country was subjected to a rigorous search. Repub- 
lican sympathizers were dragged from their homes and crowded into wretched 
prisons. Those suspected of having belonged to Clarke's command were hung 
without even the mockery of a trial. Venerable men, beyond the age of bear- 
ing arms and standing aloof from thg contest, were consigned to filthy jails for 



io8 History of Augusta. 



no reason save that they welcomed the return of sons and grandsons who had 
long been absent in the armies of the Revolution. Witness the sufferings of 
the father of Captains Samuel and James Alexander. In the seventy-eighth 
year of his age he was arrested by order of Colonel Grierson, chained, and 
dragged at the tail of a cart forty miles in two days. When attempting to 
obtain some rest for his feeble limbs by leaning against the vehicle, he was 
ignominously scourged by the driver. 

Closely confined in Augusta, these old men were held as hostages for the 
neutrality of the country. Succumbing to the rigors of ill usage, the ravages 
of smallpox, and the privations incident to their sad situation, few survived 
to behold the eventual triumph of the patriots. Some twenty- five prominent 
persons who had been paroled in Augusta were sent to Charlestown. Among 
these may be mentioned Majors George Handley and Samuel Stirk, Captain 
Chesle)^ Bostwick, Mr. John Wereat, and several members of the executive 
council of Georgia.^ 

Thus did Colonel Brown, smarting under bodily pain and remembered in- 
dignities, make good his threat uttered in the White House. Thus did he 
satiate his revenge. The homes of the patriots were filled with blood, ashes, 
and tears. The Republicans were compelled to pass under a yoke too heavy 
for the stoutest neck. Further sojourn in this region was rendered intolerable, 
and multitudes forsook the territory dominated over by the insatiate Brown 
and his followers. 

Colonels Clarke and McCall have been severely although unjustly criticised 
for inaugurating this movement against Augusta. Had they succeeded, praise 
and not censure would have been the general verdict. By some the expedi- 
tion was denounced as an "ill-timed and a premature insurrection." Such 
language did not emanate from patriotic lips. The undertaking was well con- 
ceived and vigorously pressed. But for the lack of field artillery the White 
House would have been carried prior to the appearance of Colonel Cruger. 
That the failure of the eftort to retake Augusta inflamed the Royalists and en- 
tailed additional miseries upon the region cannot be doubted. The entire af- 
fair was a warlike mischance encountered by men patriotic in their impulses, 
zealous in their action, and eager to achieve a great good. 

After raising the siege of Augusta Colonel Clarke retreated to Little River 
and there disbanded his force that his men might visit their homes preparatory 
to service in distant fields. 

Three dispatches- touching this affair were sent by Governor Wright to 
Lord George Germain, — his majesty's principal Secretary of State. In the 
first he writes, under date " Savanah in Georgia i8th Septr 1780," as fol- 
lows : " My Lord. Yesterday I receiv'd Advice from Augusta acquainting 

' See McCall's History of Georgia, .vol. ii., pp. 320-330. Savannah. 1816. 
' P. R. O. Am : and W. Ind : vol. 237. 



General Wright's Dispatch. 109. 

me that a great Number of the Inhabitants of the Ceded Lands, together with 
some from South Caroh'na, had come to Augusta on the 14th Inst, & attack'd 
Col Brown, & that they had defeated him & He was oblig'd to retire into a 
Small Stockade Fort there — There was at Augusta about 450 Creek Indians, 
& I believe Col Brown has about 200 of his own Corps. It appears to me 
that the Attack was so sudden that Col Brown had not time to send off an 
Express, & no Accounts are as yet come from him — and it is fear'd and not 
doubted that Augusta has fallen into the hands of the Rebels. The Tempta- 
tion was certainly too great unless there had been a stronger force there. I 
am well inform'd that the Goods intended as Presents to the Indians was at 
least of ^^4000 Sterlg value — Prime Cost — which it is suppos'd must have fallen 
into the Hands of the Rebels, & the whole, such sort of Goods as the Back 
Country People esteem most. It is impossible to say as yet, what the conse- 
quences of this unfortunate Affair may be." .... 

In the second, under date of " 22nd Septr," he expresses to his lordship- 
the happiness he enjoys in having it in his power to say "that Col Brown at 
Augusta, with the Assistance of the Indians, (who behav'd extremely well) held 
out against the Rebels from Thursday Morng till Monday Morng & the last 
two days without any Water — And on Monday Morng the Rebels hearing 
that Col. Cruger was marching to the relief of Col Brown, they immediately 
made off. Many Rebels have been kill'd, wounded & taken, & one hang'd & 
I hope several others will, as they have now forfeited every kind of Claim to 

favor & protection This, my Lord, is a very fortunate Event, for 

had they succeeded, I am afifraid, nay certain, they soon would have become 
formidable, & I shall now endeavour that such Steps be taken against them as 
may put it out of their power to do more mischief Some of the Indian pres- 
ents fell into their hands during the time they were there, which were carried 
off, but the principal part we're deposited where Col Brown took shelter." 

From the third, showing the temper of the royal Governor, we make the 
following extract: "I have now the Honor to inclose your Lordship a Copy 
of my Last, giving an Account of the Retreat of the Rebels from Augusta, and 
from the best Information I have been able to collect I don't find that the 
Rebel Force exceeded from 4 to 450 Men. I believe Clarke, who commanded,, 
carried back into Carolina 200 to 250 of them: the rest, its said 100 killed,, 
wounded, & taken, and from 70 to 100 surrendered themselves afterwards to 
Colonel Cruger on the Ceded Lands. 13 Indians were killed. 
Thirteen of the Prisoners who broke their Paroles & came against Augusta 
have been hang'd, which I hope will have a very good Effect. 

We are doing everything possible to root out Rebellion in this Province & 

for our Defence here. Several Plantations or Settlements on the Ceded Lands, 

belonging to those who were at Augusta, have been burnt & laid waste. I 

think about 100, and Mr. Graham 1 is now at Augusta with Directions to see 

1 Royal Lieutenant-Governor of the Province. 



no History of Augusta. 



the Disqualifying Law carried into Execution in its utmost Extent, so that I 
hope when the Generahty of them are disarmed & have been compelled to 
give security for their good Behaviour, they must be convinced that Examples 
will be made both as to Life & Property, & I trust they will not venture to 
behave in the villainous manner they have hitherto done." 

Never was the patriotism of any people more sorely tried than was that of 
republican Georgians during the winter of 1780. Their affairs were literally 
in extremis. Of commerce there was none save an occasional introduction, 
at great hazard, of salt and miHtary supplies. Agriculture, for some time on the 
wane, was now pursued with no expectation of profit, but simply as a means 
whereby a bare subsistence might be obtained. Only such raiment was pro- 
curable as domestic industry evoked from the rude spinning-wheel and the 
cumbersome hand-loom. The temples of justice were closed, and there were 
no live coals on the altars dedicated to Jehovah. School-houses were rotting 
in silence, and no sound of merriment was heard in the land. Confiscations, 
conflagrations, thefts, murders, and sanguinary royal edicts had wrought sad 
havoc and engendered mourning almost universal. Poverty and ruin dwelt 
everywhere, and for months the signs of patriotic life in Georgia were most 
feeble and spasmodic. The paper currency, the only circulating medium 
known to the inhabitants, had so effectually lost its purchasing power that the 
pay of a captain in the rebel service for an entire month was incapable of pro- 
curing for him a pair of common shoes. The pecuniary compensation of the 
private soldier was literally nothing, and his supply of food and clothing was 
meager and precarious in the extreme. 

That the Confederation, under such circumstances, should have been able 
to enlist soldiers and to offer effectual resistance appears almost inexplicable : 
for history teaches that in the maintenance of protracted wars, no matter what 
the patriotism and endurance of the contestants may be, reasonable pay and 
sufificient rations are absolutely requisite to insure ef^cient service in the field 
and contentment at home. The struggles of the American colonies in their 
rugged march toward the achievement of liberty are without parallel in the 
record of revolutions. As we look back upon this period of privation, self- 
denial, desolation, and supreme effort, we marvel at the Ireroic spirit which 
possessed this beleagured land. As we contrast the armies of the republicans 
with those of other nations renowned for valor and patriotism, we wonder at 
the inspiration which sustained them and the zeal for independence which 
enabled them to suffer every want and overcome all obstacles. 

Of all the inhuman characters developed during this abnormal period so 
replete with murder, arson, theft, brutality, and crimes too foul for utterance, 
none can be named more notorious than Thomas Brown, loyalist and colonel 
in his majesty's service. His acts incarnadine and encumber with barbarities 
the Revolutionary pages in Georgia history. And yet this tyrant, this perse- 



Colonel Williamson Invests Augusta. i i r 

cutor of defenseless women and children, this butcher of captives, this relent- 
less, merciless persecutor of patriots, in a long letter penned from Nassau on 
the 25th of December, 1786, calls Dr. Ramsay to account for the strictures in 
which he justly indulges when reviewing his conduct, and enters upon a lengthy 
justification of some of the transactions which have rendered his reputation 
well-nigh infamous. 

Bravery was his only redeeming trait, and that he possessed and exhibited 
in a wonderful degree. Loyalty to the king was the cloak which covered 
every excess. Revenge was the passion sweeter than all others. To his ears 
the dying groans of a republican were more enjoyable than strains of purest 
melody. Convicted in the city of London in 18 12 of a grand forgery upon the 
government which he served, he ended his days in disgrace and ignominy. 

The shadows which had so long enshrouded the hopes of the Revolutionists 
in Georgia were now lifting. The absent were returning and assembling in 
force for the salvation of their homes. Firm in the confidence and secure in 
the affection of the Southern Department, General Greene was hailed as the 
great and good genius of the hour. Brave men were projecting plans of deliver- 
ance, and among them was a scheme for the repossession of Augusta and the 
capture of the lawless men who had so grievously afflicted the region. 



CHAPTER XL 

Colonel Williamson Invests Augusta — Arrival of Colonel Clarke — Pickens and Lee Ordered 
to Assist in the Reduction of Augusta — Capture of Fort Galphin — The Siege and Capitulation 
of Augusta — Lieutenant-Colonel James Jackson Assigned to the Command — Burnet's Ras- 
cality — Governor Wright Calls Lustily for Aid. 

STILL suffering from the effects of the smallpox, Colonel Clarke was too 
feeble to take the saddle at the time appointed for the reassembling of his 
men at Dennis' Mill on Little River. Consequently, Lieutenant- Colonel Micajah 
Williamson assumed the command and, on the i6th of April, 1781, moved 
with the detachment to the vicinity of Augusta. There he was reinforced by 
Colonel Baker with as many militia as he had been able to collect in Southern 
Georgia, and by Captains Dunn and Irwin who brought with them some men 
from Burke County. Soon after, Colonel Hammond and Major Jackson 
arrived with such of the Carolina militia as they had been successful in recruit- 
ing in the neighborhood of Augusta. 

With this force, which was numerically a little superior to that possessed 
by the enemy but far inferior in discipline and equipment, Colonel Williamson, 
occupied a position twelve hundred yards distant from the British works,, and 



112 History of Augusta. 



there fortified his camp. It is believed that the exaggerated accounts of the 
American strength conveyed to Colonel Brown deferred him from making an 
attack which would probably have eventuated in success. 

For nearly four weeks had the republicans been sitting down before Au- 
gusta, guarding all the approaches to the town, confining its garrison within 
their defenses, and eagerly expecting reinforcements from General Greene's 
army, preparatory to a general assault upon the British works. Wearied with 
the service, and despairing of the anticipated aid, the militia were on the eve 
of withdrawing when Major Jackson — as eloquent of speech as he was daring 
in war — by a patriotic address inflamed their ardor and changed their pur- 
pose. The arrival of Colonel Clarke and one hundred men on the 15th of 
May restored confidence and confirmed the resolution to prosecute the enter- 
prise to a successful issue. 

Major Dill had collected a band of loyalists with the intention of reinforc- 
ing Brown and compelling the Americans to raise the siege. Without waiting 
for his approach, Colonel Clarke dispatched Captains Shelby and Carr, with a 
strong party, who fell upon him at Walker's bridge on Brier Creek, killing and 
wounding a number of his men and dispersing the rest. 

Entertaining no apprehension of an attack from the enemy. Colonel Clarke 
sent his cavalry horses under a guard of six men to Beech Island that they 
might be plentifully supplied with forage. Learning this fact. Colonel Brown 
detailed'a force of regulars, militia, and Indians, to proceed down the Savan- 
nah River in canoes to cut ofi" the guard and capture the animals. In this 
mission they succeeded. Every man of the guard was slain. While return- 
ing with the horses, the}' were attacked by Captains Shelby and Carr, near 
Mrs. Bugg's plantation, and entirely routed. Not one of the enemy falling 
into the hands of the Americans was permitted to live. Nearly half the 
detachment was killed. All the horses were recovered.^ 

Unfurnished with artillery Colonel Clarke picked up an old four- pounder 
which had been abandoned by the British, mounted it, and employed a black- 
smith to forge projectiles for it. This little piece was placed in battery about 
four hundred yards from Fort Grierson. So limited was the supply of ammu- 
nition that it was fired only on occasions the most favorable. 

General Pickens with four hundred men was operating between Augusta 
and Ninety-Six to cut ofi" all communication between those posts. Eastward 
of Nmety Six Colonels Branham and Hayes were recruiting their commands 
and intercepting supplies intended for the relief of that station. While thus 
engaged Colonel Hayes, who then had with him forty-five men, was suddenly 
attacked by Major Cunningham. Taking refuge in a house Hayes defended 
himself until further resistance appeared useless. He then surrendered upon 
condition that his men should be recognized and treated as prisoners of war. 

' See McCall's History of Georgia, vol^ ii. p. 368. Savannah. 1816. 



Pickens and Lee Ordered to Augusta. 113 



No sooner had they laid down their arms than they were assaulted and mur- 
dered to a man. Behold the temper and faith of the loyalists! 

The investing force of the Americans was somewhat enfeebled at Augusta 
by a detail sent into the upper portion of Georgia and South Carolina to drive 
back some Indians and loyal refugees who were committing depredations upon 
the frontier. 

Such was the posture of affairs, and such were the events which transpired 
in the vicinity of Augusta just prior to the advent of General Pickens and Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Lee. P'ort Motte had fallen. So had Fort Granby. Within 
less than a month General Greene compelled Lord Rawdon to evacuate Cam- 
den, and forced the submission of the adjacent British posts. He was now 
moving forward for the close investment of Ninety-Six. The capture of Au- 
gusta was determined upon, so that by one continuous and decisive campaign 
the deliverance of the States of Carolina and Georgia from the domination of 
the king's forces might be thoroughly compassed, save in the cases of Charles- 
town and Savannah which could not, at the time, be readily assailed because 
the enemy ruled at sea. Meanwhile Colonel Cruger was busily engaged in 
strengthening his defenses at Ninety- Six, and was resolved to hold his post to 
the last extremity. 

General Pickens and Lieutenant-Colonel Lee were ordered to repair with 
their commands to Augusta and reduce that town. The latter officer, having 
narrowly observed the operations of the enemy at Ninety- Six and reported 
fully the condition of affairs to General Greene, took up his line of march across 
the country for Augusta. On the third day he arrived in its vicinity. He had 
been preceded by Captain Ferdinand O'Neale, who, with a party of light horse, 
was detached to collect provisions and acquire all information which might 
facilitate the consummation of the military operation immediately in hand. By 
this officer Colonel Lee was advised of the arrival at Fort Galphin of the an- 
nual royal present intended for the Indians. It consisted of powder, ball, small 
arms, liquor, salt, blankets, and other articles which were sadly needed in the 
American camp. For the protection of these valuable supplies two compa- 
nies of infantry had been detailed by Colonel Brown from his command at 
Augusta, and they were, at the moment, garrisoning Fort Galphin. With a 
view to the possession of these coveted articles, and that Brown's force mi^ht 
be permanently weakened by the capture of these two companies, Colonel Lee 
resolved upon the immediate reduction of the fort at Silver Bluff. Of his 
proximity to Augusta the enemy seems not to have been aware. His move- 
ments had evidently been rapid and well concealed. Quick action was im- 
peratively^demanded. Leaving Eaton with his battalion, the artillery, and the 
exhausted men of the legion to follow on more leisurely, and mounting a de- 
tachment of infantry behind his dragoons, Colonel Lee pressed on by a forced 
march toward Fort Galphin. 

15 



114 



History of Augusta. 



This work, situated on the left bank of the Savannah River about fifteen 
miles below Augusta, consisted of the substantial brick residence erected by- 
George Galphin, the famous Indian trader, surrounded by a stockade. Dread- 
naught the English called it, and the bold bluff near which it stood had long 
been known as Silver Bluff. 

The morning of the 2ist of Mixy, 1781, was sultry beyond measure. For 
miles not a drop of water had been found to quench the violent thirst of trooper 
and horse. Men and animals were sorely oppressed as they halted beneath 
the pines which skirted the field surrounding the fort. Ignorant of the ap- 
proach of Colonel Lee and his command, the enemy was resting quietly within 
the stockade. The fierce rays of the sun smote everything with a blinding and 
paralyzing influence which forbade all exertion not imperatively demanded. 
But the prize was at hand and moments were precious. Pausing but a little 
while for his command to recover breath. Colonel Lee dismounted such mili- 
tiamen as accompanied the expedition and ordered them to demonstrate 
against the fort from a direction opposite to that then occupied by him. Con- 
fidently conjecturing that the garrison, upon the appearance of the militia, 
would speedily issue from the stockade and resist the threatened attack, Colo- 
nel Lee resolved to seize upon the instant, and, by a rapid assault, capture the 
post when thus bereft of its defenders. To that end Captain Rudolph (whom 
an ill-defined tradition identifies as the famous Marshal Ney in disguise), with 
such infantry as was capable of quick action, was held in readiness at the op- 
portune moment to rush upon the fort. The remaining foot- soldiers, sup- 
ported by a troop of dragoons, took a position whence the militia could be 
surely and readily shielded, in th-eir retreat, from any injury which the pursu- 
ing garrison might seek to inflict. Such was the strategy devised by the ac- 
complished Light Horse Harry. Most successfully was it consummated. 

As had been anticipated, at sight of the demonstrating militiamen the gar- 
rison flew to arms, and, rushhig from the fort, advanced to repel the threatened 
attack. After a show of resistance the militia retreat, drawing the garrison 
after them in hot pursuit. Just then Captain Rudolph with his detachment 
sweeps rapidly across 'the field and envelops the stockade. The resistance 
offered by the few defenders remaining within is feeble and is speedily crushed. 
The dragoons, foot- soldiers and rallying militia close in upon the enemy in the 
field, and quick surrender follows. The Americans lost but one man during 
the engagement, and he perished from excessive heat. Only three or four of 
the enemy fell in the aftair. The capture of the entire garrison, and the pos- 
session of the valuable stores concentrated within the stockade, proved a rich 
reward for the toil and suffering involved in the adventure. The entire affair, 
its conception, the strategy employed, and its consummation were alike cred- 
itable to the young Virginian and his brave followers. 

But a few short hours did Colonel Lee tarry with his command at Fort 



Capture of Fort Galphin. 115 

Galphin. Suitable provision having been made for securing the fruits of his 
dashing triumph, he hastened on to join Pickens and Clarke and to participate 
in those operations which eventuated in the surrender of Brown at Augusta. 

Compared with many other engagements which occurred within the con- 
fines of the Carolinas and of Georgia during our eight years' struggle for inde- 
pendence, this capture of Fort Galphin will perhaps be reckoned as the small 
dust of the balance, and yet it was not devoid of significance or lacking in im- 
portant consequences. It supplied a needy army with stores which it sadly 
craved. It weakened the royal forces in Augusta and conduced most materi- 
ally to the capitulation of that town. It inspired the RevohiticMiists with fresh 
courage, and nerved their arms for further exhibitions of valorous emprise. 

Major Eaton, meanwhile, with the rest of the legion formed a junction with 
General Pickens at the Cherokee ponds, six miles from Au.gusta. Together 
they moved forward and united with the forces engaged in the investment of 
that town. Having rested his infantry, Colonel Lee dispatched Major t^ggle- 
stoh at the head of his cavalry to cross the Savannah River at Wallicon's ferry, ^ 
three miles below Augusta, and to co-operate with Pickens and Clarke. That 
officer's instructions were to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the 
situation of the enemy, as his commanding officer desired definite information 
upon which he could promptly act upon arrival. He was further enjoined, 
without delay, to send in a flag conmiunicating the fact of the near approach 
of a portion of General Greene's arm\-, informing Colonel Brown that Ninety- 
Six was closely invested by the main body led by the commanding general, 
and urging the propriety of an immediate surrender. Brown had previously 
refused to receive flags coming from, or hold any communications with, militia 
officers. Eggleston being the senior continental officer there present, Colonel 
Lee, in view of all the circumstances, deemed it best that he should be deputed 
to attempt this negotiation. Colonel Brown treated the flag with contempt, 
refused to answer the dispatch, and forbade a renewal of the interview."- 

Colonel Lee arrived during the evening of the 2 1st, and took post with 
Pickens and Clarke in the woods bordering Augusta on the west. This town 
was then small, containing only a few hundred inhabitants. At a short re- 
move from the habitations, the valley in which Augusta was situated was cov- 
ered with dense woods, with cleared fields here and there. Cornwallis, the 
principal fort occupied by the enemy, was situated in the northerly portion of 
the central part of the town, having complete command of Savannah River and 
the adjacent territory. 

In after years the ground upon which it stood was set apart for holier uses. 
Here was erected a temple dedicated to the worship of the God of Peace, and 

' Now known as the Sand-bar ferry. 

"^ See Lee's Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department, etc., vol. ii. p. 92. Phil- 
adelphia. 1812. y\.cQ.'AX% History of Ge'orgia, \o\.'\\. p. 372. Savannah. 1816. 



ii6 History of Augusta. 



St. Paul's Churcli, of blessed memory, now proclaims its message of salvation 
where formerly thundered the malignant guns of this war-begrimed fort. 

Half a mile to the west the plain was then interrupted by a lagoon or swamp 
which connected Beaver Dam Creek with the Savannah River.^ On the nortii- 
western border of this lagoon, and near its confluence with the Savannah, a 
second fort- was located, called Grierson in honor of the loyalist colonel who 
commanded its garrison. British regulars were stationed in Fort Cornwallis, 
while the tenure of Grierson was confided to militia. 

Colonel Lee confesses that he was "considerably ruffled" at the contempt- 
uous treatment which Major Eggleston received, and that his determination 
was to enter into no ctmiinunication with the British commander until it was 
solicited by himself 

.After careful consideration of the situation it was resolved to drive Grier- 
son out of his fort, and either capture or destroy him in his retreat upon Corn- 
wallis. To this end arrangements were speedily made. General Pickens and 
Colonel Clarke, with the militia, were to attack from the north and west. Major 
Eaton, with his battalion, was to approach the fort from the south and co-op- 
erate with the militia, while Colonel Lee, with the infantry and artillery, moving 
southeast of the lagoon and parallel with Eaton, was to hold himself in readi- 
ness either to support his attack, if required, or to attend to the movements of 
Brown should he quit his defenses and interpose for the salvation of Grierson. 
Major Jackson with his Georgia militia was to accompany and act under the 
orders of Major Eaton. The cavalry under Eggleston were ordered to draw 
near to Fort Cornwallis, keeping under cover of the wood and prepared to fall 
upon Brown's rear should he advance against Lee. Promptly did the com- 
mands respond to the duties to which they were respectively assigned. 

Most vigorous were the attacks by Pickens and Eaton. Lee's movement 
being open to view, Brown, withdrawing his garrison and leading out two field- 
pieces, advanced as though he purposed delivering battle in aid of Grierson. 
Upon second thought d^'cming it too hazardous to persevere in this attempt, 
he checked his forward movement and confined his interposition to a cannon- 
ade which was returned by Lee, little effect being produced on either side. 
Findin*^ his resistance fruitless, Grierson determined to evacuate his fort and 
escape with his command to Fort Cornwallis Throwing open the gate the 
garrison rushed dinvn the lagoon to the river bank and under its cover en- 
deavored to make their wa\- to Cornwallis. In the perilous attempt thirty were 
killed and forty- five were wounded and captured. Comparatively few succeeded 
in escaping. The m;ijor of the garrison was killed and the lieutenant-colonel 



' The trend of this lagoon, commencing at the Beaver Dam, was generally along the pres- 
ent line of Ciimming Street. Before reaching Broad Street it turned westwardly into what is 
now called Kollock Street, and followed the direction of that street to the Savannah River. It 
was known as Campbell's Gut. 

"The site of this fort is now occu])ied, or very nearly so, by the Rii'ersule Mills. 



Siege of Augusta. 117 



captured. After surrendering, Colonel Grierson himself was shot to death by 
a Georgia rifleman. So cruel had been his practices, and so odious was his 
character, that the troops could not be restrained from inflicting this summary 
punishment, wholly unjustified as it was by the rules of civilized warfare. Al- 
though a reward was offered by the American commanders for the naming and 
apprehension of the party by whom the deed had been committed, no disclos- 
ure occurred. Captain McCalP intimates that he was shot by one of the sons 
of the venerable Mr. Alexander in revenge for the indignities heaped upon 
that aged patriot. Doubtless it was well known in the army whose hand 
pulled the fatal trigger; but, as the information was not officially brought to 
the attention of the commander, no notice was taken of the affair beyond the 
vain offer of the reward to which allusion has been made. "The militia of 
Georgia under Colonel Clarke," says the author of " Memoirs of the War in 
the Southern Department of the United States," "were so exasperated by the 
cruelties mutually inflicted in the course of the war in this State that they were 
disposed to have sacrificed every man taken, and with great difficulty was this 
disposition now suppressed. Poor Grierson and several others had been killed 
after surrender, and although the American commandants used every exertion 
and offered a large reward to detect the murderers, no discovery could be 
made. In no part of the South was the war conducted with such asperity as 
in this quarter. It often sunk into barbarity." 

Alt'hough the American loss was trivial, it involved the death of Major 
Eaton of North Carolina, an excellent and beloved officer, who "fell gallantly 
at the head of his battalion in the moment of victory." 

Perceiving that he had to deal with officers skilled in the art of war, and 
that the investing force was bent upon his capture. Colonel Brown expended 
every energy in adding to the security of his position. With fiendish malig- 
nity he placed in the bastion of his fort most exposed to the fire of the Ameri- 
can rifles, the aged Alexander and other prisoners who had long pined in cap- 
tivity. Among the companies closely investing Cornwallis was one com- 
manded by Captain Samuel Alexander. It was a hellish deed, this subjecting 
a parent to the chances of death at the hand of a devoted son. 

Nothing now remained for the Americans but, by regular approaches, to 
compel a surrender. Accordingly the troops were set to work with all the 
tools which could be collected from neighboring plantations, and with such as 
had been captured at Fort Galphin. Fort Cornwallis being near the Savan- 
nah River, and the bank of that stream affording additional protection to the 
enemy, it was lesolved to break ground in that quarter and to extend the 
works of the besiegers towards the left and rear of the fort. Brigadier-Gen- 
eral Pickens, with the militia, took post in the woods on the British left, while 
Lieutenant- Colonel Lee with his corps established himself in a large brick 

'^ H/sfo/y of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 374. Savannah. 1816. 



ii8 History of Augusta. 



building, the mansion house of a gentleman ^ vvjio had joined the enemy, situ- 
ated just south of the confluence of the lagoon with the Savannah River. 

The condition of the wounded prisoners required medical stores and atten- 
tion which could not be supplied in the American camp. Privilege was asked 
to apply to Colonel Brown for this needed assistance. Pickens and Lee an- 
swered " that after the ungracious determination to stop all intercourse an- 
nounced by the commandant of Fort Cornwallis, disposed as they were to 
obey the dictates of humanity, it could not be expected that any consideration 
would prevail with them again to expose the American flag to contumely." 
To the captive officer who preferred the request permission was granted to 
wait upon Colonel Brown, with the pledge that he would immediately return 
so soon as his reply was had. A letter was prepared expressing the regret 
with which the American commanders allowed a flag to pass from their camp, 
though borne by a British officer, after the treatment experienced on a recent 
occasion, and assuring the commandant of Fort Cornwallis " that no consider- 
ation atTecting themselves or their troops would ever have led to such a con- 
descension." To this letter Brown returned a polite response, offering excuses 
for his former conduct. 

Although the American works progressed with commendable rapidity and 
began to assume formidable proportions, so level was the ground that it was 
found to be a very difficult matter to secure a platform sufficiently elevated to 
render the only reliable field- piece in camp effective in casting its projectiles 
within the fort. Under the circumstances it was deemed proper to construct a 
" Mayham tower," which had proved so valuable in the reduction of Fort Wat- 
son. Orders were issued for cutting and transporting the necessary timber. 

While Colonel Brown had up to this point patiently contemplated the 
American approaches, the heaps of fresh eartli seen day by day within the fq^t 
indicated that he had been busily engaged in some counter operations. On 
the 28th, at midnight, he fell with great vigor upon the American works in the 
river quarter and drove out the guard. It was only after a severe conflict, in 
which Captain Handy, commanding the support, played a conspicuous part, 
that the trenches were regained and the enemy forced to seek shelter in the 
fort. This vehement attempt to destroy tlie approaches induced Colonel Lee 
to detail his infantry for their protection during the night time. To this spe- 
cial service were they assigned, being relieved from all other dut)-. " On the 
succeeding night Brown renewed his attempt in the same quarter, and, for a 
long time, the struggle was coutmucd v/ith mutual pertinacity till at length 
Captain Rudolph, by a combined charge, with the bayonet cleared the trenches, 
driving the enemy with loss into his stronghold." 

During the night of the 30th, and on the ensuing day, the tower was 
raised nearly on a level with the parapet of the fort. Its interior was filled 



Probably Mr. Kdward F. Campbell. 



Siege of Augusta. 119 



with fascines, earth, stone, brick, and every available material calculated to 
impart strength and solidity to the structure. " At the same time the adjacent 
works in rear of the fort were vigorously pushed to the enemy's left to connect 
them with the tower which was the point of their termination." 

Perceiving the danger which threatened. Brown resolved to destroy this 
tower. In anticipation of the execution of such a purpose the lines in that 
quarter were doubly manned, and Handy's infantry was conveniently posted 
in support. Captains Handy and Rudolph were placed in charge of the lines, 
and a company, armed with muskets, was detailed for the protection of the 
tower. Before midnight, on the 31st of May, the British commander, with the 
strength of his garrison, made a desperate sortie against the American works, 
which, although it entailed considerable loss, was eventually repulsed. Foiled 
in his efforts, he resorted to the construction of an elevated platform in the 
angle of his fort just opposite the " Mayham tower." Upon it two of his heav- 
iest pieces of ordnance were mounted. With these he opened fire upon the 
tower. Regardless of this annoyance, the builders continued their labors. 
On the 1st of June the tower was completed, an ambrasure cut, and the six- 
pounder gun lifted into position. From its elevated platform this gun speedily 
dismounted the two pieces in the fort, raked its interior, and commanded it 
entirely, with the exception of the segment nearest the tower and a few points 
sheltered by traverses. Wishing to shun needless slaughter, and confident that 
their operations would speedily eventuate in the reduction of Fort Cornwallis, 
General Pickens and Colonel Lee, on the 31st of May, sent a flag to Colonel 
Brown covering this communication : 

" Sir, — The usage of war renders it necessary that we present you with an 
opportunity of avoiding the destruction which impends your garrison. 

"We have deferred our summons to this late date to preclude the necessity 
of much correspondence on the occasion. You see the strength of the invad- 
ing forces, the progress of our works : and you may inform yourself of the 
situation of the two armies by inquiries from Captain Armstrong of the Legion 
who has the honour to bear this." 

Colonel Brown's response was characteristic of the man: 

" Gentlemen, — What progress you have made in your works I am no 
stranger to. It is my duty and inclination to defend this place to the last 
extremity." 

Balked in his attempts to destroy the " Mayham tower " by force of arms. 
Brown resorted to the following stratagem. During the night of the ist of 
June a wily Scotchman, a sergeant of artillery, made his appearance in the 
American camp in the character of a deserter from Fort Cornwallis. Brought 
before General Pickens and Colonel Lee, and being interrogated with regard 
to the effect produced by the six-pounder gun and as to the situation of the 
€nemy, he answered that the erection of the tower gave an advantage which. 



120 History of Augusta. 



if properly improved, would not fail in forcing a surrender, but that the garri- 
son had not suffered as much as might have been expected. He added that it 
was amply supplied with provisiofis and that it was in high spirits. " In the 
course of the conversation which followed," says Colonel Lee, " I inquired in 
what way could the effect of the cannonade be increased ? Very readily, re- 
plied the crafty sergeant : that knowing the spot where all the powder in the 
fort was deposited, with red hot balls from the six pounder, directed properly, 
the magazine might be blown up. This intelligence was received with delight, 
and the suggestion of the sergeant seized with avidity, although it would be 
very difificult to prepare our ball as we were unprovided with a furnace. It 
was proposed to the sergeant that he should be sent to the officer command- 
ing our battery and give his aid to the execution of his suggestion, with assur- 
ances of liberal reward in case of success. This proposition was heard with 
much apparent reluctance, although every disposition to bring the garrison to 
submission was exhibited by the sergeant who pretended that Brown had done 
him many personal injuries in the course of service. But, he added, it was 
impossible for him to put himself in danger of capture, as he well knew he 
should be executed on a gibbet if taken. 

" A good supper was now presented to him with his grog : which, being 
finished, and being convinced by the arguments of Lee that his personal safety 
could not be endangered as it was not desired or meant that he should take 
any part in the siege, but merely to attend at the tower to direct the pointing 
of the piece, he assented, declaring that he entered upon his task with dire 
apprehensions, and reminding the lieutenant colonel of his promised reward. 
Lee instantly put him in care of his adjutant to be delivered to Captain Finley, 
with the information communicated, for the purpose of blowing up the enemy's 
magazine. 

" It was midnight, and Lieutenant Colonel Lee expecting on the next day 
to be much engaged — our preparations being nearly completed, — retired to 
rest. Reflecting upon what had passed, and recurring to the character of his 
adversary, he became much disquieted by the step he had taken, and soon con- 
cluded to withdraw the sergeant from the tower. He had not been many min- 
utes with Captain Finley before an order remanding him was delivered, com- 
mitting him to the quarter guard." ' 

Fortunate was it that this pretended deserter was quickly placed in con- 
finement. It subsequently transpired that he had been sent out by Colonel 
Brown for the express purpose of destroying by fire the Mayham tower. Col- 
onel Lee at first was entirely deceived by him, and unwittingly issued an order 
which exactly coincided with the scheme of the sergeant and afforded him a 
favorable opportunity of fulfilling his mission. 

' Lee's Memoirs of the War in t/ie Soitf/iern Department of tJte United States, vol. ii. pp. 
105-107. Philadelphia. 181 2. 



Siege of Augusta. 121 



On the morning of the 2d of June the besiegers were saluted with another 
exhibition of the activity and strategy of the British commander which came 
very near inflicting frightful loss. Between the quarters of Colonel Lee and 
the fort stood four or five deserted houses, some of them so near the latter that 
they would afford convenient shelter to riflemen delivering their fire from the 
upper stories. They had been suffered to remain because Pickens and Lee 
hoped to utilize them upon the final assault for which preparations were being 
made. Sallying out just before the break of day, Colonel Brown burned all of 
these dwellings save the two nearest the fort. Why these were spared many 
were at a loss to conjecture. The reason became manifest at a later stage of 
operations. 

Still desirous of compassing a surrender without resorting to an assault, 
General Pickens and Colonel Lee, on the 3d of June, repeated their summons 
in the following language : 

"Sir, — It is not our disposition to press the unfortunate. To prevent the 
effusion of blood, which must follow perseverance in your fruitless resistance, 
we inform you we are willing, though in the grasp of victory, to grant such 
terms as a comparative view of our respective situations can warrant. 

"Your determination will be considered as conclusive, and will regulate 
our conduct." 

Still unyielding, and with characteristic boldness courting the chances of the 
future, Brown responded : 

"F'ORT CORNWALLis, June 3, 1781. 
"Gentlemen, — I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your 
summons of this day, and to assure you that, as it is my duty, it is likewise 
my inclination, to defend this post to the last extremity." 

The fire of the six-pounder gun was mainly directed against the parapet 
of the fort fronting on the river. Toward that quarter it was proposed that 
the main attack should be launched. Orders were issued for a general 
assault at nine o'clock on the morning of the 4th. During the night of the 
3d the best marksmen from Pickens' militia were sent to the house nearest the 
fort. The officer in command was instructed to arrange his men in the upper 
story so as to ascertain how many of them could be used to advantage, and 
then to withdraw and report to the commanding general. It was intended 
that this structure should be occupied by the same officer with such a force of 
riflemen as he should declare to be sufficient. To Handy's Marylanders and 
the infantry of the legion was the main assault from the river quarter entrusted. 
Due preparation having been made, the troops remained at their stations, 
^'pleased that the time was near which would close with success their severe 
toils." 

"About three in the morning of the 4th of June," says Colonel Lee,2 "we 

-'Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United States, vol. ii. p. 109. 
Philadelphia. 181 2. ig 



122 History of Augusta. 



were aroused by a violent explosion which was soon discovered to have shat- 
tered the very house intended to be occupied by the rifle party before day- 
break. It was severed and thrown into the air thirty or forty feet higli ; its 
fragments falling all over the field. This explained at once not only the cause 
of Brown's omitting its destruction, but also communicated the object of the 
constant digging which had, until lately, employed the besieged. 

"Brown pushed a sap to this house which he presumed would be certainly 
possessed by the besieger when ready to strike his last blow ; and he con- 
cluded, from the evident maturity of our works and from the noise made by 
the militia when sent to the house in the first part of the night for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining the number competent to its capacity, that the approach- 
ing morning was fixed for the general assault. Not doubting but the house 
was occupied with the body destined to hold it, he determined to deprive his 
adversary of every aid from this quarter : hoping too, by the consternation 
which the manner of destruction could not fail to excite, to damp the ardor 
of the troops charged with storming." 

It was indeed a narrow escape. Even in his extremity Brown was fruitful 
in resources. His resolution never forsook him, and his blows were vigorous 
to the last. 

As the army was waiting the signal for the assault, the American com- 
manders, moved by the perilous situation of the captives, who had long been 
held in confinement within tiie fort, made this appeal to its commanding 

officer : 

"Headquarters, June 4, 1781. 

" Sir, — We beg leave to propose that the prisoners in your possession may 
be sent out of the fort, and that they may be considered yours or ours as the 
siege may terminate. 

"Confident that you cannot refuse this dictate of humanity and custom of 
war, we have only to say that any request from you a similar nature will meet 
with our assent." 

It was urged in vain, as the following response testifies: 

" Gentlemen, — Though motives of humanity, and a feeling for the dis- 
tresses of individuals, incline me to accede to what you have proposed con- - 
cerning the prisoners with us, yet many reasons to which you cannot be 
strangers forbid my complying with this requisition. 

"Such attention as I can show, consistently with good policy and my duty, 
shall be shown to them." 

Before an advance was ordered, an officer with a flag was seen approach- 
ing from Fort Cornwallis. He bore this message from Colonel Brown to Gen- 
eral Pickens and Colonel Lee : 

" Gentlemen, — In your summons of the 3d instant, no particular con- 
ditions were specified: I postponed the consideration of it to this day. 



Articles of Capitulation. 123 



"From a desire to lessen the distresses of war to individuals, I am inclined 
to propose to you my acceptance of the inclosed terms, which, being pretty 
similar to those granted to the commanding officers of the American troops 
and garrison in Charlestown, I imagine will be honourable to both parties." 

It being now manifest that a surrender would be compassed without a 
final appeal to arms, operations were suspended for the day, and the com- 
manding officers turned their attention to negotiations which culminated on 
the following morning in the proposal and acceptance of these articles of capit- 
ulation : 

"Article I. That all acts of hostilities and works shall cease between the 
besiegers and besieged until the articles of capitulation shall be agreed on, 
signed, and executed, or collectively rejected, 

''Answer. Hostilities shall cease for one hour; other operations to con- 
tinue. 

"Article II. That the fort shall be surrendered to the commanding 
officer of the American troops such as it now stands. That the King's troops, 
three days after signing the articles of capitulation, shall be conducted to 
Savannah with their baggage, where they will remain prisoners of war until 
they are exchanged : that proper conveyances shall be provided by the com- 
manding officer of the American troops for that purpose, together witli a suf- 
ficient quantity of good and wholesome provisions till their arrival in Savan- 
nah. 

''Answer. Inadmissible. The prisoners to surrender field prisoners of 
war. The officers to be indulged with their paroles : the soldiers to be con- 
ducted to such place as the commander-in-chief shall direct. 

"Article III. The militia now in garrison shall be permitted to return 
to their respective homes, and be secured in their persons and properties. 

"Answer. Answered by the second article, the militia making part of the 
garrison. 

"Article IV. The sick and wounded shall be under the care of their 
own .surgeons, and be supplied with such medicines and necessaries as are 
allowed in the British hospitals. 

"Answer. Agreed. 

"Article V. The officers of the garrison, and citizens who have borne 
arms during the siege, shall keep their side arms, pistols, and baggage which 
shall not be searched, and retain their servants. 

"Answer. The officers and citizens who have borne arms during the siege 
shall be permitted their side arms, private baggage and servants ; their side 
arms not to be worn, and the baggage to be searched by a person appointed 
for that purpose. 

"Article VI. The garrison at an hour appointed shall march out, with 
shouldered arms and drums beating, to a place to be agreed on where they 
-will pile their arms. 



124 History of Augusta. 



''Answer. Agreed. The judicious and gallant defence made by the gar- 
rison entitles them to every mark of military respect. The fort to be delivered 
up to Captain Rudolph at twelve o'clock, who will take possession with a 
detachment of the Legion infantry. 

"Article VII. That the citizens shall be protected in their persons and 
properties. 

"Anszver. Inadmissible. 

"Article VIII. That twelve months shall be allowed to all such as do 
not choose to reside in this country, to dispose of their effects, real and per- 
sonal, in this Province, without any molestation whatever, or to remove to any 
part thereof as they may choose, as well themselves as families. 

"Afiszcer. Inadmissible. 

"Article IX. That the Indian families now in garrison shall accompany 
the King's troops to Savannah, where they will remain prisoners of war until 
exchanged for an equal number of prisoners in the Creek or Cherokee nations. 

''Answei'. Answered in the second article. 

"Article X. That an express be permitted to go to Savannah with the 
commanding officer's dispatches, which are not to be opened. 

"Auszvcr. Agreed. 

"Article XI. (Additional) The particular attention of Colonel Brown 
is expected towards the just delivery of all public stores, moneys, &c , and 
that no loans be permitted to defeat the spirit of this article. 

"Signed at Headquarters, Augusta, June 5th, 1781, by 

Andrew Pickens, B. G. Mil. 
Henry Lee, Jun'", Lieut. Col. coin. 
Thomas Brown, 
Lieut. Coi. eommanding King s troops at Augusta.'''^ 

The postponement of the surrender until the 5th was very gratifying to 
Colonel Brown, as the 4th was the anniversary of the birthday of the king. 

For some time prior to this capitulation, so destructive was the fire main- 
tained by the Americans, especially from the six-pounder gun mounted in the 
" Mayham tower " which searched almost every part of the fort, that the be- 
.sieged were compelled to dig holes in the earth for their protection. Any ex- 
posure of the person during the day involved almost certain death.' At eight 
o'clock on the morning of the 5th the British garrison, some three hundred 
strong, marched out of Fort Cornwallis and Major Randolph took possession 
of it. Captain Armstrong of the dragoons, with a safeguard, was detailed to 

1 See Ramsay's History of the Revolution of South Carolina, vol. ii. p. 497. Trenton. 
MDCCLXXXV. Tarleton's History of the Campaigns of 1780 and 1781, etc., p. 493. London. 
MDCCLXXXVii. Lee's Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the Utiited 
5/a/«, vol. ii. p. I I 5. Philadelphia. 181 2. 

'See Ramsay's History of t/ie Ret'otiition of South Carolina, vol. ii., p. 239. Trenton 
MDCCLXXXV. 



Major James Jackson Assigned Command. 125:. 

protect Colonel Brown from the threatened violence of the militia who, justly 
incensed at his mitiy bloody deeds and acts of tyrann}', eagerly sought his 
life. Young McKay, whose brother had been inhumanly put to death by 
Brown at Wiggin's Hill, watched an opportunity to shoot the British com- 
mander. He was conducted to Colonel Lee's quarters where he remained 
until the next day, when he and a few of his officers were paroled and sent 
down the river to Savannah under the charge of Captain Armstrong and a 
party of infantry instructed to guard him until he was beyond the reach of 
danger. At Silver Bluff he was recognized by Mrs. McKay who accosted him 
thus: " Colonel Brown, in the late day of your prosperity I visited your camp 
and on my knees supplicated for the life of my son, but you were deaf to my 
entreaties. You hanged him, though a beardless youth, before my face. These 
eyes have seen him scalped by the savages under your immediate command, 
and for no better reason than that his name was McKay. As you are now 
prisoner to the leaders of my country, for the present I lay aside all thoughts 
of revenge ; but when you resume your sword I will go five hundred miles to 
demand satisfaction- at the point of it for the murder of my son."i 

The loss sustained by the British was fifty-two killed and three hundred 
and thirty four wounded and captured. Sixteen of the Americans were slain 
and thirty-five wounded. 

Shortly after the capitulation General Pickens and Colonel Lee, with the 
prisoners, crossed the Savannah River and joined General Greene, who was 
still conducting the investment of Ninety-Six. Heartily welcomed were these 
officers and their commands. To them was General Greene pleased to ex- 
press in general orders "the high sense he entertained of their merit and ser-- 
vice." His thanks were also publicly rendered for the " zeal and vigor exhib- 
ited in the execution of the duty assigned to them." 

To Major James Jackson, whose early exertions paved the way for the final 
reduction of the post, was the command of Augusta entrusted. Here he re- 
mained, with occasional absences on important enterprises, until the assem- 
bling of the Legislature in August, 1781, when Dr. Nathan Brownson was 
elected governor, and Colonel John Twiggs, in consideration of his long and 
meritorious services, was complimented with the commission of brigadier-gen- 
eral,2 Meanwhile, acting under authority conferred by General Greene, he 
had raised a partisan legion in command of which he continued until the close 
of the war. 

Among the stores in Fort Cornwallis, subject to distribution among the 
captors, was a quantity of Indian goods. It being found impracticable to 
divide them out without encumbering too much the troops still engaged in-.. 



1 Ramsay's History of the Revolution of South Carolina, vol. ii., p. 240. Trenton... 
MDCCLXXXV. ^ 

2 See Chariton's Life of Jackson, Part I., p. 34. Augusta. 1809. 



126 History of Augusta. 



active service, that portion falling to the lot of the Georgians was placed in the 
hands of John Burnet, with directions to transport these goods to some safe 
place in the western part of the State where they were to be kept until a suit- 
able opportunit)' arose for their equitable distribution. Burnet always pro- 
fessed an ardent attachment to the American cause. Under pretense of har- 
assing the loyalists in the low country, he had recently, with some followers, 
visited some of the wealthy settlements south of Savannah and indiscriminately 
robbed friends and foes of their slaves and personal property. He then held in 
the vicinity of Augusta some sixty negroes whom he had thus captured. Pro- 
fessing that he had taken them from loyalists, and offering to throw them into 
hotch-pot with the goods so that a more generous dividend might be declared to 
Georgia soldiers who, during the war, had borne heavy burthens and sustained 
grievious losses, he so won the confidence of officers and men that the booty 
was delivered into his custody. Undertaking to remove it beyond all possible 
recaption by the enemy, he journeyed towards the mountains of Upper Geor- 
gia. Once fairly out of reach, he disclosed to his companions his design of 
quitting the country and appropriating this spoil. Sympathizing in the ras- 
cally purpose, they assisted him in making his way to the Ohio River where, 
procuring boats, they passed down to Natchez and there divided the stolen 
property.^ Thus were the Georgia troops who participated in the reduction of 
Augusta defrauded out of their share of the booty. 

The capture of Augusta, while it raised the spirits of the republicans to 
a high pitch of exultation and encouraged the faint hearted to emerge from 
their hiding-places and stand up like men in the ranks of the Revolutionists, 
exerted a most depressing influence upon the minds and hopes of the king's 
servants. Governor Wright, at Savannah, called so lustily for aid that Lord 
Rawdon, weak as he was, was persuaded to part with the king's American 
regiment and send it from Charlestown, in small craft and without convoy, to 
the relief of that royal governor.^ In this wise did he give expression to his 
distresses and apprehensions: "It gives me the greatest concern to acquaint 
you of the loss of Augusta by Colonel Brown being reduced to the necessity 
of capitulating, and as you well know the consequences that must be attendant 
on this I need say little, but must observe that if this Province is not recovered 
from the Rebels without the least delay I conceive it may be too late to pre- 
vent the whole from being laid waste and totally destroyed and the people 
ruined. We are now in a most wretched situation. I shall not reflect on 
the causes, but the grand point is to recover back what we have lost, if it be 
possible, and to prevent further misfortunes and injury to his Majesty's service. 

" Our distresses are many, and how to furnish the militia on actual duty 



1 See McCall's History of Georgia, vol. ii., p. 380. Savannah, 1816. 

''Tarieton's Campaigns of 1780 and 1781, etc., p. 486. London. MDCCLXXXIVII. 



March to Savannah. 127 



with rations I can't tell, for there is not a single barrel of beef or pork to be 
purchased here, even if I had the money to buy it. I trust therefore. Sir, that 
circumstanced as we are you will think it for his Majesty's service and really 
necessary to order some of the King's provisions here for the support of the 
militia on actual service, the number of which, I think, will be at least what is 
mentioned in the Minute of Council, besides those in and about town which, I 
suppose, amount to 300."^ 



CHAPTER XII. 

Military Operations Culminating in the Surrender of Savannah — Plot to Murder Colonel 
Jackson — Celebration in Augusta upon the Acknowledgment of the Independence of the 
United States — Charge of Chief-Justice Walton — Early Legislation Affecting Augusta — 
The City of Augusta Incorporated in 1798 — Trustees, Intendants, and Mayors of Augusta. 

THE capture of Augusta was a terrible blow to British domination in Geor- 
gia. It foreshadowed the eventual triumph of Republican arms. Sir 
James Wright recognized the handwriting on the wall, and confessed in his 
dispatches that everything was "now in a most wretched situation." He freely 
confessed that unless his majesty's forces were capable of speedily recovering 
what had been lost, further misfortunes and injury would ensue. 

The upper portion of Georgia being now under full control of the Repub- 
licans, General Twiggs directed his attention to the repossession of the South- 
ern division. To this end he ordered Lieutenant-Colonel James Jackson to 
move with his Georgia legion, consisting of three companies of cavalry and 
two of infantry, in the direction of Savannah, and to occupy positions as near 
the enemy as becoming caution would suggest. His general instructions were 
to annoy the outposts and detachments of his antagonist as fully as the means 
at command would allow, and to retreat or advance as the circumstances of the 
case might justify. 

Jackson's legion was composed in part of British deserters and Loyalists, 
who, professing a change of political sentiments, had abandoned the service of 
the king. Dangerous and unreliable was this element. For its efficient con- 
trol strict discipline and tireless vigilance were required. Not long before the 
receipt of these orders, and while Colonel Jackson was still in command at 
Augusta, a nefarious plot was discovered which had been formed by a portion 
of his legion. The scheme was to assassinate the commanding officer in an 
unguarded moment and, seizing the governor and as many members of the 

''Letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Balfotir, dated Savannah, nth of June, 1781. P. R. O.. 
Am. & W. Ind., vol. ccxcvii. 



128 History of Augusta. 



executive council as were present in the town, to carry them ofif and turn them 
over to the British authorities in Savannah. This plan was quietly communi- 
cated to General Alured Clarke, commanding at Savannah. He cordially 
sympathized in it ; and, as a substantial proof of his approval, ordered Captain 
Brantley with forty-five men to proceed cautiously to the outskirts of Augusta, 
join the conspirators under cover of night, and co-operate with them in the 
consummation of the nefarious project. Liberal rewards were also offered by 
him as a stimulus to the perpetration of the crime. 

The manner in which this iniquitous design was frustrated is thus told by 
Captain McCall : i " A faithful soldier named David Davis, who was the Col- 
onel's waiter, discovered that there was something in agitation of an extraor- 
dinary nature in the camp; and, in order to obtain a knowledge of the secret, 
affected an extreme dislike to the Colonel, and' united with the conspirators in 
the use of the most unqualified language of abuse and disrespect for him. Sup- 
posing that Davis' situation would enable him to be of great service to the 
party, they lent a favorable ear to his observations. This stratagem had the 
desired effect, and drew from the traitors a disclosure of the diabolical pur- 
poses in contemplation, which he immediately communicated to his Colonel, 
and informed him that no time was to be lost in checking its progress, as it was 
ripe for execution. The dragoons, who did not appear to have been engaged 
in the conspiracy, were ordered to mount their houses and repair to Colonel 
Jackson's quarters, prepared for action. The infantry were ordered to parade 
without arms, under pretence of searching for some clothing which had been 
stolen the preceding night. The dragoons were ordered in front with drawn 
swords, and the ring leaders were seized and confined. A general court mar- 
tial was ordered to convene, and the culprits were brought up for trial. John 
Goodgame, William Simmons, and one Honeycut were ascertained to be the 
projectors and leaders in the conspiracy. The court found them guilty of 
treason and sentenced them to suffer death by being hanged, and they were 
executed accordingly. The remaining seventeen turned State's evidence, con- 
fessed their guilt, and were pardoned in consequence of their apparent peni- 
tence." 

Thus narrowly did a gallant officer escape assassination. Thus, almost as 
by accident, was preserved the life of a patriot who had already rendered sig- 
nal service in the army of the Revolution, and who, in after years, as soldier, 
citizen, advocate, senator, and chief magistrate of Georgia, illustrated in a con- 
spicuous degree all the virtues which appertain to the civilian, the hero, and 
the statesman. 

By the Legislature of Georgia was Davis complimented for his fidelity to 
his commander and his attachment to the cause of liberty. In token of the 

"^ History of Georgia, \o\. ii. p. 384. .Savannah. 1816. 



Close of the Campaign. 129 

general approval of his conduct he was presented with five hundred acres of 
valuable land, and with a handsome horse, saddle and bridle. 

Captain Brantley had reached Spirit Creek in the execution of his missiorr 
when he learned that the plot had been discovered. Thereupon he hastily re- 
turned to Savannah. 

In equipping his legion Colonel Jackson depended upon the skill and indus- 
try of his own men. Upon the back of a letter addressed to him by Thomas 
Hamilton, one of his infantry officers, appears this statement in the handwrit- 
ing of the colonel : " I made all my own accoutrements, even to swords for my 
dragoons, caps, leather jackets, boots, and spurs, and in short every article."^ 
What proof more convincing can be offered of the limited resources of this 
war-worn land, or of the necessities and the ingenuity of its resolute defenders? 

The spring and summer of 1781 were enlivened by several naval exploits 
on the coast, in which Captains Towell, McCleur, Antony, and Braddock, bore 
conspicuous parts. The end was now approaching. " It is all over !" ex- 
claimed Lord North with the deepest agitation and distress when the tidings of 
the surrender of Lord Cornwallis first reached England. 

The potent effect of this disaster, and the recent successes of General Greene 
in South Carolina, enabled that officer, in January, 1782, to turn his attention 
to the relief of Georgia. Lieutenant-Colonel James Jackson had been harass- 
ing the enemy on the Great Ogeechee, while Pickens and Twiggs had kept the 
Indians at bay. All eyes were now turned to circumscribing the British forces 
within the narrowest compass. The repossession of Savannah engaged the 
earnest attention of the patriots. General Wayne was detached by General 
Greene " to reinstate, as far as possible, the authority of the Union within the 
limits of Georgia." On this mission the hero of Stony Point was accompanied 
by one hundred of Moylan's dragoons, commanded by Colonel Anthony Wal- 
ton White, and a detachment of field artillery. On the 12th of January, 1782^ 
he crossed the Savannah River. He was soon joined by Colonel Hamptoa 
with three hundred mounted men of Sumter's brigade. The infantry and cav- 
alry of Jackson's legion then numbered only ninety men. McCoy's volunteers 
did not exceed eighty men of all arms. To these Governor Martin hoped to 
add three hundred Georgia militia. 

The duty assigned to General Wayne of maintaining a close watch upon 
the enemy, and, if the occasion offered, of capturing Savannah by a nocturnal 
assault, was so efficiently discharged that predatory bands of soldiers and loy- 
alists were seldom seen beyond the lines of that town. The customary inter- 
course of the Indians with the garrison was restrained. That garrison — in- 
cluding a reinforcement recently sent by Lord Rawdon, and a corps of one 
hundred and fifty negroes, armed, enrolled as infantry, and commanded by the 
notorious Brown, — consisted of thirteen hundred regular troops and about five 

1 See Chadton's Life of Jackson, part i. p. 37. Augusta. 1809. 



130 History of Aucjusta. 

hundred loyal militia. The town was strongly fortified. Its land approaches 
were defended by field and siege guns judiciously posted. Armed row-galleys 
and brigs covered the water front. So closely were these lines watched, and 
so strictly were the British forces confined to these defenses, that the gallant 
Jackson on more than one occasion demonstrated even up to the town gates 
and picked off" men and horses from the common. 

As soon as the advance of the American forces under General Wayne was 
known in Savannah, Brigadier- General Alured Clarke, who commaded the 
royal troops in Georgia, "directed his officers charged with his outposts to lay 
waste the country with fire, and to retire with their troops, and all the pro- 
visions they could collect, into Savannah." This order was rigidly executed, 
and the circumjacent country was so thoroughly devastated that General 
Wayne found it necessary to draw his subsistence from South Carolina. 
In April Colonel Posey arrived with one hundred and fifty Virginians. 

In May, General Wayne met and routed Colonel Brown at Little Ogee- 
chee Causeway ; and, on the 23d of June, after a severe encounter, he overcame 
the Indian chief Guristersigo, who, with three hundred followers, endeavored, 
at the dead of night, to surprise him at Gibbons' plantation. 

A crisis was reached in the royal camp at Savannah upon the receipt of a 
communication from Sir Guy Carleton, dated New York, May 23, 1782, order- 
ing the evacuation both of that town and of the province of Georgia, and no- 
tifying the authorities that transports might be speedily expected to bring 
away not only the troops and military and public stores, but also Governor 
Wright and all loyalists who desired to depart. Although anticipated, this in- 
telligence created a profound impression among soldiers and civilians. The 
latter were most anxious to ascertain what their status would be under the 
■changed condition of affairs, and to secure pledges that they would be unmo- 
lested in the enjoyment of personal liberty and private property. Various ne- 
gotiations ensued, which resulted in the evacuation of Savannah by the king's 
forces on the nth of July, 1782. During the afternoon of that day General 
Wayne entered with his forces and took formal possession of the town. To 
Colonel Jackson were the keys delivered at the principal gate in token of sur- 
render. He enjoyed the pleasure and the honor of being the first to enter Sa- 
vannah, from which the patriots had been forcibly expelled in December, 1778. 
It was a just recognition of the patriotism and gallantry which characterized 
him during the war, and of the activity displayed by him as the leader of the 
vanguard of the army of occupation. Thus, after the lapse of three years and 
a half, was the capital of Georgia wrested from the dominion of the royal forces 
and restored to the possession of the " Sons of Liberty." With the departure 
of the British garrison there lingered not a single servant of the king on Geor- 
gia soil. Although no treaty of peace had yet been consummated between 
England and America, this surrender of Georgia into the hands of the Repub- 



Celebrating the Return of Peace. 131 

licans was hailed as a practical abandonment of the war on the part of the 
Realm, and was regarded as an earnest of a speedy recognition of the indepen- 
dence of the United States. And so it proved. 

By the General Assembly which convened in Savannah in January, 1783, 
that sterling patriot and worthy gentleman, Dr. Lyman Hall, was elected gov- 
ernor of Georgia. On the 31st of that month George Walton was selected to 
fill the position of chief justice ; Samuel Stirk, was appointed attorney-gen- 
eral; John Martin, treasurer; John Milton, secretary of State; Richard Call, 
surveyor- general ; and registers of probate and assistant justices were named 
for the respective counties. Land offices were established, and commissioners 
were designated to superintend the sales of confiscated property. Temples of 
justice and religion were again to be opened in a land full of scars and desola- 
tion. Provision was made for public education, and the entire machinery of 
State government was put in motion. 

So sadly had Augusta suffered by the disasters of war that it became nec- 
essary to provide quarters for the governor and the heads of departments, and 
a proper place for the accommodation of the general assembly. This was done 
while the Legislature temporarily convened at Savannah. In July, 1783, the 
general assembly again met in Augusta, and continued to hold its sessions in 
that town until Louisville, in Jefferson county, was designated as the " seat of 
government" in 1795. 

In the Georgia Gazette of Thursday, May 29, 1783, we find the following: 
" On Wednesday last, when the great and joyful news of Peace reached this 
place, ^ properly authenticated, a very elegant and sumptuous entertainment 
was provided, when upwards of three hundred ladies and gentlemen dined 
under a large bower made for the purpose. At one o'clock there were thir- 
teen discharges of cannon, and after dinner the following toasts were drank, 
each succeeded by the firing of artillery: 

1. The Free, Sovereign and Independent States of America. 

2. The Governor and the State. 

3. His Most Christian Majesty, our F'irst, Good and Generous Ally. 

4. His Catholic Majesty. 

5. The United Provinces of Holland. 

6. Congress of the United States. 

7. His Excellency, General Washington. 

8. The Hon. General Greene. 

9. The American Officers and Army who have established the Liberty 
thereof 

10. The Officers and Seamen of the American Navy. 

11. Compte Rochambeau, his Officers and Army who have served in 
America. 

1 Au<justa. 



132 History of Augusta. 

12. The American Commissioners for making Peace. 

13. May the Liberties of America be as lasting as Time. 

The company retired to Mr. Fox's, where there was a ball and supper. The 
evening concluded with illuminations, bonfires, rockets and ever)' other dem- 
onstration of joy suitable to the occasion, and with the greatest peace and har- 
mony. " 

In his charge to the grand jury of Richmond county,^ delivered on the 31st 
of October, 1783, Chief Justice George Walton, said: "There is no county in 
the State which ought to pride itself more on account of its natural advanta- 
ges than that of Richmond. The principal navigation terminating in it, pre- 
sents a most commodious and delightful spot for an extensive commercial 
town. It is to me a gratification to be able to inform you that the Legislature, 
at its last session in Augusta, passed a law upon the most liberal basis for ex- 
tending and speedily building up that town. It is your interest, as it is your 
duty, to watch and see that ti-a law is certainly and faithfully executed. Au- 
gusta thus extended and built up. will soon become the mart of the whole 
country above it, and by furnishing plentiful supplies it will be a great con- 
venience to the people. 

"In addition to this the assembly has ordered an academy to be erected for 
the instruction of youth — an institution which will record the names of its ad- 
vocates in letters of virtue and applause to the latest posterity. The entire loss 
of education, and the great decline of morality, are the chief calamities which 
we now experience as consequences of the war." 

The chief justice was right in his prognostication. By virtue of her loca- 
tion Augusta held the key which unlocked a vast trade with tlie dwellers in 
the "ceded lands," in regions beyond, and in a circumjacent territory of rich 
proportions; — a trade destined to increase in volume and importance with each 
succeeding year. In the absence of railways, the Savannah River constituted 
a convenient highway for commerce, the value of which could not be over- 
estimated. Only enterprise and capital were wanting to place the town upon 
a vantage ground most enviable. These were quickly furnished ; and in pro- 
portion to the population which she then possessed, we presume it would not 
be an exaggeration to affirm that the town of Augusta never saw days of 
greater commercial prosperity than those which she enjoyed during tlie last 
decade of the eighteenth centurw For a hundred years and more the acad- 
emy, to which the chief ju-tice alluded, has been fulfilling its high mission. 

Of the early legislation affecting Augusta, the following acts may be re- 
garded as among the most important: 

By an act of the General Assembly, approved March 15th, 1758, the prov- 
ince of Georgia was divided into eight parishes, and " The District of Augusta, 
extending from the northwest boundary of the parish of Saint George, and 

1 Georgia Gazette Thursday, November 20. 17S3. 



Legislative Enactments. 133 

southwest as far as the River Ogeechee, and northwest up the River Savannah 
as far as Broad River," was designated as the Parish OF Saint Paul. In 
the IV section of that act it was provided that "the church erected in the town 
■of Augusta, with the cemetery or burial place thereto belonging, shall be the 
Parish Church and Burial Place of Saint Paul." 

Ten years afterwards legislative sanction was obtained for the establishment 
of a public ferry "from the center of the town of Augusta, upon Savannah 
River, to the bluff on the opposite shore in the Province of South Carolina." 

By the Constitution of 1777, Parishes were abolished, and Counties were 
erected in their stead. Under this change the Parish of Saint Paul became the 
County of Richmond, and was declared entitled to ten representatives. In 
naming the counties the Constitutional Convention was not unmindful of the 
debt of gratitude which Georgia, in common with her sister American colonies, 
owed to distinguished statesmen and friends in England who were espousing 
the cause of justice, humanity, and liberty. 

In 1780, Savannah and the seaboard generally being in the possession of 
the king's forces, " the town of Augusta in the county of Richmond" was des- 
ignated as " the seat of government." with a proviso that in case that town 
should, during the recess of the legislature, "be approached or invested so as 
to appear untenable, then his Honor, the Governor, and the Executive Coun- 
cil for the time being, should remove to such place as the common safety 
should make necessary, which should be considered as the seat of government 
until the recovery of the said town of Augusta " 

By the same act lot owners within the limits of Augusta, deriving title 
from the Crown, were required, within two years after the passage of the act, 
to build upon their respective lots houses of prescribed dimensions, or else for- 
feit them to the use of the State. The vacant lands above and below the town, 
lying along the river and adjoining the premises of McCartan Campbell on 
the west and Andrew McLean on the east, were "to be laid oiit in lots and 
sold for the use of the State in order to enlarge the limits of the town." When 
divided into lots of prescribed dimensions, this territory was to be disposed of 
"at public vendue in Augusta by the sheriff of the county." To the purchas- 
ers the governor was empowered to sign grants in the name of the State. It 
was further ordered that the streets and roads of Augusta should be laid out, 
measw'cd, and posted in the best and most regular way. " The remote situation 
of Brownsboro rendering it a very unsafe place for a Gaol and Court-House," 
it was enacted that "a Court-House and Gaol for the County of Richmond be 
built in the Town of Augusta on one of the public lots in Broad Street. 

. and that all malefactors should be there confined and tried, and that suits 
at law should be there heard and determined during the present war," Reser- 
vations of lots were indicated for the location of "public seminaries and 
.schools," for "Houses of Public worship," and for "public cemeteries." 



134 History of Augusta. 



William Glascock, George Walton, Daniel McMurphy, John Twiggs, and 
George Wells Esquires, were named as commissioners to carry into effect the 
provisions of this act. 

The contemplated sale of lots having miscarried, a new commission — con- 
sisting of George Walton, Joseph Pannel, Andrew Burns, William Glascock, 
and Samuel Jack Esquires, was appointed by act of the Legislature, approved 
July 31st, 1783, to lay out and sell the reserved lands in and near the town of 
Augusta. 

Sections IV and VII of this act made provision for the location, erection, 
and support of the "Academy or Seminary of Learning" which has so long 
ministered to the educational wants of this community. The designated 
commissioners were also charged with the direction of the public ferry at 
Augusta. 

By the third section of the act assented to January 26th, 1786, Augusta 
was continued as the place of meeting for the Legislature; and the Governor, 
the Secretary of State, the Treasurer, the Surveyor General, and the Auditor 
were required to reside and have their respective offices here until the State 
house and public buildings authorized to be constructed at Louisville, in Jeffer- 
son County, under the supervision of Nathan Bronson, William Few, and 
Hugh Lawson, — commissioners, — should be completed and declared ready 
for occupancy. 

On the 6th of December 1790 the General Assembly invested Wade 
Hampton, his heirs and assigns, with the exclusive right of erecting and main- 
taining a toll-bridge over the Savannah River at or near the ferry previously 
established between the town of Augusta and the Carolina shore, upon the 
annual payment of a certain sum to George Walton, William Glascock, Abra- 
ham Baldwin, Robert Forsyth, Edward Telfair, Seaborn Jones, and John 
Milton, Esquires, Trustees of Augusta, and their successors in office. 

Three days afterwards an act was passed dividing the territory of Rich- 
mond County into two counties. All that portion lying above or northwest- 
erly of a line commencing on the Savannah River at the mouth of Red's 
Creek and thence running south forty-five degrees west, was erected into a 
new county called Columbia. George Handley, John Meals, and Robert For- 
syth Esquires were designated as commissioners to select a site within the 
town of Augusta whereon to erect "a Court House and a Gaol," and to super- 
vise the construction of those buildings. 

On the 15th of December 1791 the Corporation of the Town of Augusta 
was vested with the power of regulating the proposed county "Court House 
and Gaol." 

By an act of the General Assembly, approved the iSth of February 1796, 
the Trustees of Augusta were required to make uniform the width of Broad 
Street which, between Washington and Lincoln streets, was sixty- four feet 
wider than at other points along its line. 



Augusta Incorporated. 



135 



Cornelius Dysart, Samuel Jack, Dennis Smelt, Isaac Herbert, James Pearre, 
John Springer, and Moses Waddell were declared a body corporate " by the 
name and style of 'The Trustees of the Augusta Meeting House,' and the 
Trustees of Augusta were instructed to convey to them and their successors one 
of the public lots within the town, containing at least one acre of ground and 
conveniently situated, for the purpose of erecting thereon a 'House of Public 
Worship to the Divine Being by whose blessing the Independence of the 
United States had been established.' " 

Augusta having recently sustained considerable injury from a freshet in 
the Savannah River, the Trustees of the town were authorized to establish a 
Lottery, "under such scheme, regulations, and restrictions" as they might 
deem most expedient, in order to raise moneys with which to erect piers in 
such parts of the river as "would in their Judgment most effectually divert 
the current of the same from off the said Town." 

B37 section VI of this act Thomas Gumming, Esqr., was named as a Trus- 
tee of the town of Augusta in the room of John Milton resigned, and Abra- 
ham Jones, Samuel Jack, and Augustus Baldwin Esquires "were added to the 
list of Trustees for the said Town." 

The bridge, erected by Wade Hampton, over the Savannah River having 
been carried away "by an extraordinary fresh," the Legislature, on the 13th 
of February 1797, at his urgent request granted him an extension of two years 
within which to replace a structure so essential to the convenience and the 
commerce of the place. 

On the 31st of January 1798 the General Assembly passed an act incor- 
porating the " Gity of Augusta. "^ The preamble runs as follows: "Whereas, 
from the extent and population of the town of Augusta, its growing import- 
ance both with respect to increase of inhabitants and diffusive commerce, 
it is indispensably necessary that many regulations should be made for the 

Previous to its incorporation as a "city," Augusta was governed by Commissioners, or 
Trustees, who exercised over the town, the Academy, public buildings, and public lands, such 
authority as the General Assembly appointing them saw fit to delegate and enjoin. 

In 1780 the " Trustees of the Town of Augusta " were William Glascock, George Walton, 
Daniel MacMurphy, John Twiggs, and George Wells. 

Those serving in 1783 were William Glascock, George Walton, Joseph Pannill, Andrew 
Burns, and Samuel Jack. 

Three years afterwards, the Trustees were William Glascock, George Walton, Abraham 
Baldwin, Robert Forsyth, Seaborn Jones, Edward Telfair, Samuel Jack, and John Milton. 

In 1790 William Glascock, George Walton, Robert F'orsyth, Seaborn Jones, Abraham 
Baldwin, John Milton, and Edward Telfair acted as Trustees. 

When the act of incorporation was assented to, Thomas Gumming, George Walker, James 
Pearre, Robert Cresweli, Andrew Inniss, Isaac Herbert, and William Longstreet were com- 
missioners.* 

* For this list of Trustees and Commissioners I am indebted to L. T. Blome, Esqr., the courteous and efficient Clerk o 
Council. 



136 History of Augusta. 

preservation of peace and good order within the same : And Whereas from- 
the many weighty and important matters that occupy the attention of the 
Legislature at their general meeting it has hitherto been found inconvenient, 
and may hereafter become more so, for them to devise, consider, deliberate 
on, and determine all such laws and regulations as emergencies or the local 
circumstances of the said Town may from time to time require:" therefore be 
it enacted, etc., etc. 

The qualification for citizenship, the corporate name, and the territorial 
divisions of the municipality were specified thus: "From and immediately 
after the passing of this act all persons, citizens of the United States and 
residing one year within the said town and having a freehold or lease for years 
of a lot within the same or the village of Springfield, or between the said 
village and Town, shall be deemed, and they are hereby declared to be a body 
politic and corporate; and the said Town shall hereafter be called and known 
by the name of the City of AugUSTA, and shall be divided into the follow- 
ing districts, to wit: All lots situate below the cross street running from the 
river Savannah between the Market House and the house of Mrs. Fox to be 
called and known by District Number One: all the lots between the said street 
and the cross street running from the said River between the house of Mr. 
Andrew Innis and the house occupied by Collin Reed & Co. to be called and 
known by District number Two: and all the lots above that street, including 
the village of Springfield, shall be called and known by District Number 
Three." ^ 

When organized under the provisions of this act of incorporation, the city 
council of Augusta was composed of the following members: Thomas Cum- 
ming. intendant ; Joseph Hutchinson, clerk ; George Walker, James Pearre, 
Robert Creswell, Andrew Innis, Isaac Herbert, and William Longstreet, coun- 
cilmen. - 



\ Marbury and Crawford's Digest, pp. 136-139. 

' INTEND.A.NTSOF AUGUSTA. — 1803-1804, John Murray; 1805, William J. Hobby; 1806, 
Thomas Flournoy ; 1807, John B.Barnes; 1808, Freeman Walker, John Catlett ; 1809-1811, 
Joseph Hutchinson ; 1812, James T.Walker; 1812-1813, Seaborn Jones : 1814, Joseph Hut- 
chinson; 181 5-1 8 16, Walter Leigh ; 1817, P'reeman Walker. 

Mayors of Augusta.— 1818-1819, Freeman Walker; 1819-1821, Nicholas Ware ; 1821, 
Richard H. Wilde; 1822, Robert Walker; 1822, Freeman Walker; 1823-1824, Robert R. 
Reid ; 1825-1826, William W\ Holt; 1826, Robert R. Reid ; 1827-1836. Samuel Hale; 1837, 
John Phinizy; 1838, Samuel Hale; 1839. Alfred Gumming; 1840, Daniel Hook ; 1841, Martin 
M. Dye; 1842. Daniel Hook; 1843-1845, Martin M. Dye; 1846-1847, L. D. Ford ; 1848, I. P- 
Garvin; 1849. James B. Bishop ; 1850-1851, Thomas W. Miller ; 1852-1853, William E. Dear- 
jng; 1854, Abner P. Robertson; 1855. William E. Dearing ; 1856, George W. Evans; 1857- 
1858, Benjamin Conley : 1859-1860. Foster Blodgett, jr. ; 1861-1865. Robert H. May; 1866, 
James T. Gardiner; 1866, John Foster; 1867, Foster Blodgett, jr.; 1868, Henry F. Russell; 
1869, J. V. H. Allen; 1870- 1875, Charles Estes ; 1876-1878, John U.Meyer; 1879-1889, 
Robert H. May.* 

* For this list of intendants and mayors of the city of Augusta I am indebted to I.. T. lilome, Es(i., the courteous and 
efficient clerk of council. 



Population in 1791. 137 



In 1 79 1 Augusta is said to have contained two hundred and fifty houses, 
and a population of eleven hundred. The public buildings consisted of a 
church, a court house, an academy, wherein between eighty and ninety pupils 
were instructed, a stone jail, a government house for the accommodation of the 
governor and the State officials, and three warehouses capable of storing ten 
thousand hogsheads of tobacco. In that year over six thousand hogsheads of 
tobacco were there inspected. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Legislative Proceedings — Newspapers — Ratification in Augusta by the State of Georgia, 
•of the Federal Constitution — Constitutional Convention of 1789 — Georgia Divided into Con- 
gressional Districts — President Washington's Visit to Augusta — Military Convention of 
August, 1793. 

WHEN the Land Court was opened in Augusta by the Hon. John Haber- 
sham, president of the executive council, in May, 1784, so thronged was 
it by impatient applicants that the greatest disorder prevailed, and for days 
the regular business had to be suspended. 

It was in Augusta that the Legislature perfected those liberal bills which 
gave to the State a university. When we remember the tender age of the 
commonwealth, its feebleness and destitution, when we appreciate the losses 
which had been sustained during the War of the Revolution, when we consider 
the unsettled condition of public affairs, and then appreciate the broad basis 
upon which this institution of learning was planted, the sound principles upon 
which it was founded, and the zealous efforts of its originators to make it stable 
and efficient, we may well claim peculiar honor for Georgia in thus making 
early provision for a State university, and in passing wholesome laws for secur- 
ing to her sons the blessings of a liberal education on her own soil. ^ In pro- 
moting this important measure, and in the development of this most valuable 
scheme, the City of Angusta, through her prominent citizens, bore an enviable 
part. It would, perhaps, not be deemed invidious in this connection to claim 
the highest honors for the Hon. Abraham Baldwin. 

In 1785 Augusta had made such progress that a weekly newspaper was 
established in the town. It was called the Augusta Chronicle and Gazette of 
the State, and was the official organ of the Commonwealth of Georgia. In 182 1 
it became The Augusta Chronicle and Georgia Gazette. The following year 
its name was changed to The Aus^usta Chronicle and Georgia Advertiser. 



' See Stevens Bistorj 0/ Geor£-ia. Vol. ii., p. 364. Philadelphia. 1859. 
10 



138 V History of Augusta. 



Thirteen years afterwards it appeared simply as the Augusta Chronicle. In 
1837, having absorbed The States Rights Sentinel, a paper edited by Judge 
Longstreet, author of " Georgia Scenes," it appeared as a daily newspaper 
under the style oi Daily Chronicle and Sentinel. Having, in 1877, absorbed 
The Constitutionalist, which for more than eighty years had been its rival, it 
appeared as TJie Chronicle and Constitutionalist ; and, having subsequently 
again changed its name, now maintains a vigorous existence as The Augusta 
Chronicle. 

Early in January, 1788, occurred a political event of no ordinary signifi- 
cance. We refer to the ratification by the State of Georgia of the Federal 
Constitution. This was accomplished in Augusta on the 2d of that month : 

By ordinance of the loth of February, 1787, William Few, Abraham Bald- 
win, William Pierce, George Walton, William Houstoun, and Nathaniel Pen- 
dleton, esqs., were appointed commissioners to represent the State of Georgia' 
in the convention called for the revision of the constitution of the United States. 
They were instructed to unite with the deputies from sister States in devising 
and discussing such alterations and further provisions as might be found neces- 
sary to render the Federal constitution adequate to the exigencies of the 
Union. 

In the deliberations which ensued the Hon. Abraham Baldwin bore an 
active and influential part. In concluding its labors on the 17th of September, 
1787, that Constitutional Convention — over which General George Washington 
had presided with distinguished ability — adopted a resolution that the constitu- 
tion just formulated and promulgated to accomplish "a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, 
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty," should be 
submitted to " a convention of delegates, chosen in each State by the people 
thereof under the recommendation of its Legislature, for their assent and ratifi- 
cation ; and that each convention assenting to and ratifying the same, should 
give notice thereof to the United States in Congress assembled." 

In responding to this suggestion Georgia was not tardy. A convention 
was promptly called, to meet in Augusta on the fourth Tuesday in December, 
1787, to consider the proposed constitution, and to adopt or reject any part or 
the whole thereof. Augusta was then the capital of Georgia. The following 
gentlemen were named as members of that important convocation: Delegates 
from Chatham county, William Stephens, Joseph Habersham ; from Effing- 
ham, Jenkin Davis, N. Brownson ; from Burke, Edward Telfair, H.Todd; 
from Richmond, John Wereat, William Few, James McNeily ; from Wilkes, 
George Matthews, F"lorence Sullivan, John King; from Liberty, James Powell, 
John Elliott, James Maxwell ; from Glynn, George Handley, Christopher Hil- 
lary, J. Milton ; from Camden, Henry Osborne, James Seagrove, Jacob Weed ; 
from Washington, Jared Irwin, John Rutherford ; and from Greene, Robert 



Christmas, Thomas Daniel, R. Middleton. 



Ratification of the Federal Constitution. 139 

John Wereat, a delegate from the county of Richmond, speaker of the Pro- 
vincial Congress of 1776, a conspicuous patriot during the Revolutionary War, 
and, at one time, as president of the executive council, acting govornor of 
Georgia, presided over the convention. The delegates were, without excep- 
tion, men of character, of established reputation, and of acknowledged ability. 
William Stephens had been the attorney- general of the State, and also its chief 
justice. 

Joseph Habersham had been a prominent ofificer in the Continental army, 
and was afterwards complimented by General Washington with the position of 
postmaster general of the United States. 

Jenkin Davis and James Maxwell were delegates to the memorable Pro- 
vincial Congress, which assembled at Tondee's long room in Savannah, on the 
4th of July, 1775. 

John Milton had borne arms in the lists of patriots, and filled the office of 
secretary of State. 

Henry Osborne was a prominent jurist, and was advanced to the position 
of chief justice of Georgia. 

In the catalogue of governors of Georgia appear the names of Nathan 
Brownson, Edward Telfair, George Matthews, George Handley, and Jared 
Irwin. William Few, who had been a delegate to the Continental Congress, 
was subsequently elected United States senator from Georgia. 

The deliberations of this convention were harmonious ; and, on the 2d day 
of January, 1788, culminated in the following ratification of the Federal con- 
stitution : 

" We, the delegates of the people of the State of Georgia in convention 
met, having taken into our serious consideration the Federal Constitution 
agreed upon and proposed by the deputies of the United States in general 
convention held in the city of Philadelphia on the 17th day of September in 
the yc.r of our Lord 1787, have assented to, ratified, and adopted, and by 
these presents do, in virtue of the powers and authority to us given by the 
people of the said State for that purpose, for and in behalf of ourselves and 
our constituents, fully and entirely assent to, ratify and adopt the said consti- 
tution, which is hereto annexed, under the great seal of the State." 

As the formal signing of this ratification by the delegates was concluded, 
the joyful tidings were proclaimed to the multitude assembled opposite the 
State House. The huzzas of the citizens were supplemented by a salute of 
thirteen discharges from two field-pieces, served by a detachment from Colonel 
Armstrong's regiment which was then quartered in Augusta.^ 

In the order of time, Georgia was the fourth State to accept and ratify the 
constitution as promulgated by the convention of 1787. 

The conventions whose deliberations gave to Georgia the constitution which 

^See the Gazette of the State of Georgia, No. 260, Thursday, January 17, 1788. 



I40 History of Augusta. 



became operative on the first Monday of October, 1789, all met in Augusta. 
When, having completed their labors, the members of the third constitutional 
convention, in a body, waited upon Governor George Walton, their president, 
William Gibbons, of Savannah, placed in his hands that admirable document 
and requested that it be deposited among the archives of the State. In the 
name of the convention he further asked that its provisions be formally pro- 
mulgated. Upon receiving the engrossed constitution Governor Walton re- 
plied : 

" Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Convention : The constitution for 
the government of this State, which you now deliver to me, shall have the 
great seal affixed to it and be deposited in the office of the Secretary of State. 
It shall be announced to the people at large by proclamation, and a sufficient 
number of copies printed for the use of the several counties. I hope and be- 
lieve that it will be productive of public good and happiness, the objects of gov- 
ernment and of society." 

The act of formally accepting the new constitution by the governor from 
Mr. Gibbons, the president of the convention, was announced to the town by 
a salute of eleven guns in honor of the eleven States which had thus far acceded 
to the constitution of the United States. ^ 

Edward Telfair was the first governor elected under this constitution, and 
his inauguration took place in the House of Representatives which, if we are 
correctly informed, stood nearly opposite the present "Law Range" in the city 
of Augusta, on the nth of November, 1789. l ^>v C SliW}^ m^ tilv. l>.o<~i'itUi 

On the 26th of this month, a day set apart by the General Congress for "^Vs 
public thanksgiving and prayer, in order that the people of the land might ac- 
knowledge "with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, 
especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of 
governmetit for their safety and happiness," the members of the General As- 
sembly repaired to St. Paul's Church where they listened with great attention 
to a sermon prepared for the occasion by the Rev. Mr. Palmer, rector of the 
parish. 

The General Assembly on the 8th of December, 1790, divided the State in- 
to three Congressional districts The counties of Camden, Glynn, Liberty, 
Chatham and Effingham composed the lower; Burke, Richmond and Washing- 
ton the middle ; and Wilkes, Franklin and Greene the upper district. In due 
course James Jackson was chosen as a representative from the lower, Abraham 
Baldwin from the middle, and George Matthews from the upper district. 

On Wednesday, the i8th of May, 1791, Augusta was honored by a visit 
from the Pater Patrice, General George Washington, then the president of the 
United States. In the Augusta Chronicle oi^Adiy 21, will be found an account 
of the courtesies extended and the ceremonies observed on this occasion. 



^ See Stevens' History of Georgia, vol. ii. p. 390. Philadelphia. 1859. 



Visit of General Washington. 141 



Major Ambrose Gordon, by direction of the governor, had been ordered to 
hold himself in readiness with a detachment of not less than fourteen volun- 
teers, to march and escort the president, who was journeying by land from Sa- 
vannah to Augusta. 

The artillery was posted at the old fort with instructions, upon the approach 
of the president, to fire a salute of fifteen rounds. 

Accompanied by Major- General Twiggs, Judge Walton, the Sheriff of Rich- 
mond county, the Secretary of State, the Treasurer, the Attorney- General, the 
Solicitor- General, the Surveyor- General, the Clerk of the House of Represen- 
tatives, the Secretary of the Senate, and a numerous cavalcade of respectable 
citizens, his excellency. Governor Edward Telfair, five miles below Augusta 
met the President of the United States. The procession halted, and General 
Washington, alighting from his carriage, mounted his horse. Escorted by 
Major Jackson and the Federal Marshal, he then advanced to meet the Gov- 
ernor who moved forward attended by the Secretary of State. Governor Tel- 
fair then congratulated the President "on his near approach to the residence 
of government." 

This ceremony concluded, a procession was formed, and the President, amid 
salvos from Captain Howell's artillery, was conducted to the residence on 
Broad street prepared for his reception. At four o'clock he dined with the 
Governor — the Federal and State officers and other gentlemen being present. 
" The President's toast was The State of Geoj'gia." In the evening a ball in 
his honor was given by Mrs. Telfair. 

On Thursday morning the citizens of Augusta presented the following ad- 
dress : 

" To the President of the United States of America : 

"Sir: Your journey to the southward being extended to the frontier of the 
Union, affords a fresh proof of your indefatigable zeal in the service of your 
country, and equal attention and regard to all the people of the United States. 
With these impressions, the citizens of Augusta present their congratulations 
upon your arrival here in health, with the assurance that it will be their great- 
est pleasure, during your stay with them, to testify the sincere affection they 
have for your person, their sense of obligation for your merits and for your 
services, and their entire confidence in you as the Chief Magistrate of their 
country. On your return, and at all times, their best wishes will accompany 
you, while they retain the hope that a life of virtue, benevolence, and patriot- 
ism, may be long preserved for the benefit of the age, and the example of pos- 
terity. " George Walton, 

"John Meals, 
"Thomas Gumming, 
"Peter Carnes, 
"Seaborn Jones." 



!i42 History of Augusta. 



To this complimentary address the President returned the following answer: 

"Gentlemen: I receive your congratulations on my arrival in Augusta 
with great pleasure. I am much obliged by your assurances of regard; and thank 
you, with unfeigned sincerity, for the favourable sentiments you are pleased to 
express towards me. 

"Entreating you to be persuaded of my gratitude, I desire to assure you 
that it will afford me the most sensible satisfaction to learn the progression of 
your prosperity. My best wishes for your happiness, collectively and individ- 
ually, are sincerely offered. George Washington." 

At half past four o'clock in the afternoon the President dined at the court- 
house with a large number of citizens. Governor Telfair was also present. 
The entertainment was provided by subscription, and was as sumptuous as the 
means at command would allow. At the conclusion of the feast customary 
toasts were offered. That proposed by the President was The State of Georgia, 
and Prosperity to Augusta. 

In the evening General Washington attended a ball in the large room of the 
Academy. 

On Friday, the 20th day of May, the following address was presented by 
Governor Telfair: 

" To the President of the United States of America. • 

" My warm congratulations on your arrival at the residence of government 
in this State are presented with a peculiar pleasure, as well as a feeling sensi- 
bility ; and I am persuaded that these emotions are perfectly congenial with 
those of my fellow citizens. 

"After the gratification felt from your presence among them, they will nat- 
urally contemplate the many unavoidable inconveniences arising in so arduous 
and extensive a tour, with the most solicitous anxiety. Not less impressed, 
my cordial wishes shall accompany you through every stage on your return to 
the seat of government of the United States. 

"Long may you remain to fill the exalted station of Chief Magistrate of the 
American Republics as the just reward of that patriotism which marked every 
act of your life whilst engaged in the arduous struggles of a long and compli- 
cated war — gave tone to the liberties of your country — immortalized your 
name throughout the nations of the world — and created an unbounded confi- 
dence in your virtue, with the strongest attachment to your person and family, 
in the minds of American citizens. Edward Telfair." 

To this the President was pleased to return the following response: 
*' To his Excellency, Governor Telfair: 

"Sir: Obeying the impulse of a heartfelt gratitude, I express with particu- 
lar pleasure my sense of the obligations which your Excellency's goodness, 
and the kind regards of your citizens have conferred upon me. 



Visit of General Washington. 143 

"I shall always retain the most pleasing remembrance of the polite and 
hospitable attentions which I have received in my tour through Georgia, and 
during my stay at the residence of your government. 

"The manner in which your Excellency is pleased to recognize my public 
services, and to regard my private felicity, excites my sensibility and claims 
my grateful acknowledgement. 

"You will do justice to the sentiments which influence my wishes by be- 
lieving that they are sincerely proffered for your personal happiness, and the 
prosperity of the State in which you preside. GEORGE Washington." 

On Friday the President attended an examination of the pupils of Rich- 
mond Academy, and expressed much satisfaction at the evidence of profi- 
ciency which they exhibited. In the afternoon he dined with Governor Tel- 
fair and a select party. 

On Saturday morning General Washington bade adieu to Augusta. He 
was escorted by the Governor and the State and Federal Officers to the bridge 
over the Savannah River, where they "paid their compliments and took their 
leave." As the President was crossing the bridge he was saluted by Major 
Gordon's horse, and Captain Howell's artillery. 

Thus ended a pleasant episode in the history of Augusta. What a contrast 
between the journey of President Washington in 1791, and the tour of Presi- 
dent Cleveland in 1887 ! 

In 1793 the existing relations between the State of Georgia and the Indian 
nations had become so unsatisfactory and threatening, that Governor Telfair, 
having applied in vain to the Federal Government for such aid as he thought 
the exigencies of the frontier demanded, resolved himself to conduct military 
operations on the part of the Commonwealth to compel peace and security at 
the hands of the Creeks and Cherokees. To that end he summoned a council 
of general officers to meet him in Augusta on Thursday, the 8th of August, 
1793. There were present on that occasion Governor Telfair, commander-in- 
chief, Major-Generals John Twiggs, James Jackson and P^lijah Clarke, and 
Brigadier-Generals Glascock, Morrison, Clarke, Irwin and Gunn. After con- 
sidering the condition of affairs it was resolved that an expedition of two thou- 
sand horse and three thousand foot should at once be organized to proceed 
against the Creeks in the following October. When advised of this purpose on 
the part of the State of Georgia, President Washington expressed his decided 
disapproval. Through General Knox, his secretary of war, he promulgated 
the wish that the purposed expedition should be abandoned, and so the matter 
ended. " With the Yazoo speculations, in which several of the prominent citi- 
zens of Augusta were largely interested, the limits of this sketch do not per- 
mit us to deal. 

In the convention which framed the constitution of 1798, the County of 
Richmond was ably represented, and the labors of Mr. Robert Watkins in this 



144 History of Augusta. 



connection entitle him to permanent and honorable remembrance. The drama 
made its first appearance in Augusta in 1798. " positively for six nights only," 
under the auspices of Misses Williamson and Jones. They opened with "Three 
Week's After Marriage." 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Cultivation of the Tobacco Plant in Georgia — Rapid Improvement in the Trade and Pros- 
perity of Augusta — Introduction of Cotton— Letter of Mr. Joseph Eve — William Longstreet 
and* his Steamboat — Population of Richmond County upon the Close of the Last Century — 
Sibbald's Description of Augusta in 1799 — Concluding Remarks. 

THE introduction of the tobacco plant into Georgia materially conduced to 
the development and the prosperity of Augusta. Many of the early ini 
habitants of the present counties of Elbert, Lincoln, Wilkes and Oglethorpe 
came from Virginia bringing with them not only a fondness for " the weed," 
but also a high appreciation of its value as an article of commerce. The vir- 
gin lands of this region were well adapted to its cultivation. This plant soon 
attracted general notice, and proved the staple commodity or market crop of 
the farmers. 

As the existing laws of the State forbade its exportation without previous 
inspection and the payment of specified fees, it became necessafy to establish 
public warehouses at convenient points where the tobacco crop could be stored 
and inspected. No hogshead or cask of tobacco could be shipped which did 
not bear the stamp of some "lawful inspector." ^ For the faithful performance 
of their duties these inspectors were required to give bonds, and it was made 
obligatory upon them to attend continuously at their respective warehouses 
from the first of October to the first of August in each year. It was enjoined 
upon them carefully to inspect, weigh, receipt for, and stamp each hogshead 
delivered at the warehouse. The hogshead or cask was "not to exceed forty- 
nine inches in length, and thirty- one inches in the raising head." Its weight, 
when packed, was to be not less than " nine hundred and fifty pounds nett." 

Vehicles of all sorts being scarce, it was not customary in those primitive 
days to transport these hogsheads upon wagons. The hogshead or cask being 
made strong and tight, and having been stoutly coopered, was furnished with 
a temporary axle and shaft to which a horse was attached. By this means it 
was trundled over the country roads to market, or to the nearest public ware- 
house. Water courses were also freely used for the conveyance of tobacco in 

1 See Watkins's Digest, p. 444. 



Letter of Joseph Eve. 145 

open boats. The prototype of the Petersburg cotton boat of the present day 
was the tobacco boat of the latter part of the eighteenth century. 

The location of a public warehouse at the confluence of Broad and Savan- 
nah Rivers proved most acceptable and serviceable to the tobacco growers in 
this rich region, and speedily attracted merchants who, there fixing their 
homes, became purchasers of the tobacco when inspected, and in return sold 
to the planters such supplies as they needed. Such was the origin of the town 
of Petersburg. Its existence was due to the concentration at this point of the 
tobacco crop of a considerable area. The presence of this commodity was em- 
phatically the cause of population, and the parent of trade. Lisbon, Federal- 
Town, and Edinborough were other villages which owed their existence to the 
tobacco trade. Augusta was in the end the principal mart whither this tobacco 
tended. It was the point of transhipment, and from the depots of the Au- 
gusta merchants were supplies derived not only by the country merchants but 
also by numerous planters coming from great distances. The trade, both by- 
wagon and by boat, was extensive and lucrative; and its effect in confirming^ 
the prosperity of the town, in improving the style and number of its buildings,, 
in enhancing the general wealth, and in promoting the importance of the set- 
tlement, was most evident. Commerce with the Indians still existed to a lim- 
ited extent, but it no longer entered as an important factor in the calculations 
of the merchants. 

Upon the decadence of the tobacco plant, the cultivation of cotton engaged 
the attention of the agricultural community. Although as early as 1739, a 
bag of cotton is said to have been exported from Savannah, it was not until 
1785 that the value of this product was fairly recognized in the United States. 
Ten years afterwards a million pounds were exported for foreign consumption. 
Early in the present century five hundred bales, each weighing three hundred 
pounds, were consumed by the home manufacturer, and forty- one million 
pounds went abroad to supply the needs of foreign factories. Tobacco was 
then supplanted by cotton, and Augusta became the market for an extensive 
region producing this most important article of commerce. The invention 
and introduction of Eli Whitney's cotton gin imparted a wonderful impulse to 
this industry, and conferred a benefit which cannot be overestimated. He 
should be generously remembered as a benefactor of his race. 

In this connection we make no apology for introducing the following letter 
from Mr. Joseph Eve, the father of the late venerable Professor Joseph A. Eve, 
M.D., of this city, whose pure life and valuable ministrations are cherished in 
such lively recollection. The original exists among the Rush papers in the 
manuscript department of the Ridgway Library in Philadelphia. 

" Dear Sir : — I have invented a machine for the separating of Seed from 
cotton, which has been in use in these islands these several years. 

" Having received the last year a number of applications from the Southern 

19 



146 History of Augusta. 



States for my Machines, I am induced to petition the Legislature of the United 
States for a Patent for the exclusive use of them. Without this security I 
could not, in justice to myself, let my machines be introduced into the States. 

" Major l^utler was kind enough to hand a Petition for me to Congress, 
and has promised that if I send a model of my Machine, I shall obtain a Patent. 

" I was in Charles Town in the Summer to meet General Butler there. 
The business could then have been settled, but that I could not make the 
model in Charles Town. I had, however, such papers executed as the law 
relative to Patents requires ; and having taken the liberty of sending them, 
with the model of the Machine, to your care. Major Butler has promised to 
bring the matter forward for me again, and to use his influence in promoting 
its success. 

"The only motive I can urge for troubling you with the care of this Model 
and these Papers is the probability that Major Butler may not be at Philadel- 
phia. Perhaps I gratif}' a secret vanity at the same time, and I am conscious 
of a high pleasure in the opportunity it affords me of expressing my gratitude 
for your former Patronage, and the kindness I have so often met with from you. 

" If I succeed in this business I expect, in the prosecution of it, to have to 
go to Philadelphia, when, to thank you personally will not be my smallest 
pleasure. " I remain, with high esteem, dear sir, 

" Your most obd't hble. servt., 
" Bahama Islands. "JOSEPH EvE. 

"Nassau, 24th Nov., 1794. 

" I have sent the Pacquet to Major Butler, which is inclosed, open for 
perusal. 

" I will thank you to put a wafer in it. 

"Dr. Benjamin Rush." 

What the precise character of this machine was, and whether or not Mr. 
Eve obtained a patent for it, we are not advised. It would appear, however, 
from this letter, that this "machine for the separating of seed from cotton" 
had not only been in use among the cotton planters of the Bahama Islands 
sexeral years before Whitney perfected and introduced his invention, but that 
it had also attracted the notice of cotton growers in the Southern States. 

In the centennial edition of the Augusta C/ironicle, appeared an interesting 
article from the pen of Mr. Salem Dutcher, entitled "William Longstreet, in- 
ventor of the steamboat." On the 1st of February, 1788, the General Assem- 
bly of Georgia passed an act securing to Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet, 
for the term of fourteen years, the exclusive privilege of using a newly con- 
structed steam engine, the product of their joint invention. In a letter ad- 
dressed to Governor Edward Telfair, and now of file in the archives of this 
State, Mr. Longstreet, under date Augusta, September 26th, 1790, refers to 
his steamboat, and asks executive assistance and patronage in his efforts to per- 



William Longstreet and his Steamboat. 147 



feet and utilize it. It does not appear that this application was crowned with 
success. 

In the teeth of many obstacles Mr. Longstreet continued his experiments; 
and, having in 1806 accumulated means sufficient for the purpose, constructed 
a steamboat according to his own ideas and successfully navigated it in the 
Savannah River. 

After a careful examination of all the evidence which can be adduced, Mr. 
Butcher arrives at the following conclusion : 

" From the reference here to ' the different essays he has made,' taken in 
connection with the letter above quoted of 1790, it is quite likely that the 
statement of his having successfully operated a steamboat on the waters of the 
Savannah in 1806 is correct. If so, he is indubitably entitled to the honor of 
being the inventor of the steamboat, Robert Fulton's successful trial trip up the 
Hudson, in the Clermont, dating from August 7, 1807. If Mr. Longstreet's 
boat was not on the water till 1808, so that Fulton is entitled to the credit of 
having first operated the invention, the honor of excogitating the idea of steam 
navigation is still with the former, since, as we have seen, he receives a patent 
from the Georgia Legislature in 1788, and in 1790 mentions the steamboat by 
name as an invention of his, then well known, and it was not until 1790 that 
Robert Fulton left the United States for Europe in order to perfect his educa- 
tion. After his return to the United States he became acquainted with Chan- 
cellor Livingston, who had paid great attention to the subject of steam as a 
motor, and in 1798 obtained from the New York Assembly the exclusive right 
to apply it to the propulsion of vessels. From this time Fulton began, in con- 
junction with the chancellor, a series of experiments which culminated in the 
Clermont, in 1807. 

" Considering that something over nineteen years elapsed from the time 
of the Georgia statute up to Fulton's final experiment, and that Longstreet 
never relinquished his idea in all that period, but constantly kept it before the 
public, it is not at all improbable but that in that prolonged period intelligence 
of the ingenious Georgian's idea extended throughout the then Union. In 
fact, we know that in 1789 John Stevens made some experiments toward steam 
navigation in New York, and that in 1790 John Fitch is said to have put a 
species of steamboat on the Delaware; circumstances tending to show Long- 
street's idea had been noised abroad. 

"This, of course, is but inference; but, however it may be, one thing in 
the history of steam navigation is perfectly well established, and that is that in 
1788 William Longstreet, of Georgia, had conceived the idea of the steamboat, 
and either before, or about contemporaneously with, the famous trip of the 
Clermont, had, by the mighty agency of steam, made a vessel walk the water 
like a thing of life." 

We have here a memory which, among the recollections of old Augusta, 
should be cherished with peculiar pride. 



148 History of Augusta. 

When the census of 1791 was taken, Richmond county had an aggregate 
population of eleven thousand three hundred and seventeen. Of this number 
four thousand one hundred and sixteen were slaves. Columbia county had 
not then been carved out of the territory of Richmond. 

By the census of 1801 the population of Richmond county is returned at 
five thousand four hundred and seventy- three, while that of Columbia county 
is fixed at eight thousand three hundred and forty- five. 

In Sibbald's Notes a}id Observations 07i the Pine Lands of Georgia} — a rare 
and an interesting tract, — we find the following description of Augusta as the 
town appeared at the close of the last century: 

" Augusta is situated upon the southwestern bank of Savannah River, lat- 
itude 33.40, on a beautiful and extensive plain. It is one hundred and twenty 
miles northwest of Savannah. The town is regularly laid out in streets cross- 
ing at right angles.^ The principal street, called Broad street, running nearly 
east and west, is a handsome, well built street, one hundred and sixty- five feet 
wide, and has a row of trees for nearly a mile on each side. On this street 
there are upwards of one hundred stores filled with all the necessary manufac- 
tures of the Northern States, of Europe, the East and West Indies. This city, 
in point of riches, is equal to any of the same size in tlie United States. The 
other streets are sixty-six feet wide, except Greene street, which is one hun- 
dred feet wide. There are many handsome, well built houses on them. In the 
rear of the town a street has been laid out three hundred feet wide, in the mid- 
dle of which an academy, containing a center building forty-five by thirty-six 
feet, and wings thirty-three by one hundred feet, is now building. This build- 
ing is ornamental with a cupola, and may be said to be the most elegant build- 
ing of the kind in the Southern States. It is intended to accommodate one 
hundred and fifty students. 

" Upon a line with it, fronting another square, a brick building is now erect- 
ing for a Court- House, upon a handsome and convenient plan. This street is 
intended to be ornamented with trees for a Public Walk. There are also a 
Church, Methodist Meeting- House, a large Stone Goal, a Market-House, and 
two Ware-Houses for the Inspection of Tobacco. No Town ever rose into im- 
portance with such rapidity as this Town has. In the year 1785, on the spot 
where the Town stands, there were only ten houses. There are now three hun- 
dred and four houses, and it is fast increasing in buildings, commerce, and 
every kind of improvement. It has the advantage of a most beautiful situation, 
and enjoys a good climate, good water, and is surrounded by fertile land. It 
will, one day, rise to a degree of importance. It was incorporated by an Act of 
the Legislature approved January 31, 1798." 

With the close of the eighteenth century our labors in connection with the 

'Augusta: Printed by William J. Bunce. 1801. pp. 59, 60. 

'■'This is'characteristic of all the towns in Georgia planned l)y General Oglethorpe. 




^'^'fyFa.Ke.rna.TL 1>C'V^. 



/^^ e^ Jm^.(^/. 



General Remarks. 149 

preparation of this Memorial Volume end. We have endeavored, from all 
.available sources of information at command, to furnish a truthful narrative of 
ev^ents, military, political and social, and to present a faithful history of the for- 
tunes and development of Augusta during the first sixty-five years of her ex- 
istence. 

The curtain rose upon a feeble trading post, quite isolated, and located 
upon the extreme verge of European colonization in Georgia. It descends 
upon a thriving town, claiming a population of some two thousand, conduct- 
ing a lucrative commerce with an extensive circumjacent territory, and ad- 
vancing rapidly in civilization and wealth. The clouds which overshadowed 
the settlement and darkened its progress during the Indian wars, and the 
storms which shattered its houses and rendered desolate its streets during the 
protracted and sanguinary contest between Revolutionists and Royalists, have 
all been dissipated. An era of steam and of assured prosperity is at hand. 
Competent men are earnestly striving for the honor and the expanding welfare 
of the community. Among those who then guided and stimulated public 
affairs, and attended to the business of law, of politics and of commerce, the 
names of Abraham Baldwin, George Walton, Edward Telfair, William Few, 
John Twiggs, Wade Hampton, Samuel Hammond, Thomas Gumming, 
Thomas Glascock, Freeman Walker, Nicholas Ware, Seaborn Jones, Elijah 
Clarke, Robert Watkins, Benjamin Few, and others scarcely less prominent, 
are well remembered. And among them — at that time unknown to fame but 
inspired with a brave ambition to excel — is an Irish boy, poor and a stran- 
ger, destined in after years as a lawyer, an advocate, a statesman, and a man 
of letters to reflect credit upon his adopted home, and in his pathetic lines 

commencing: 

" My life is like the summer rose, 
Tiiat opens to the morning sky," 

entitling himself to grateful and honorable remembrance so long as the English 
language endures. 



CHAPTER XV. 



^^^^•^ 4- 



Original Plan of the City — The Old Town — Limits Enlarged in 1780 — Government by 
•Commissioners — Augusta's Loyal Element— The Captured Cannon— Augusta the State Capi- 
tal — Trustees of Augusta— Limits Enlarged in 1786— Charter of 1789— Popular Discontent — 
Charter Withdrawn — The Yazoo Freshet. 

THE history of Augusta from its settlement in 1735 to the close of the 
eighteenth century is previously narrated in this work by one en- 
tirely competent to the task. The city was incorporated in 1798, and its his- 



150 History of Augusta. 



tory from that time, with some account of its municipal government from the 
earliest period, will be the business of this part of the work. 

As has been stated. Augusta was first settled in 1735, and while General 
Oglethorpe's primary object was to establish a trading post and frontier for- 
tress for the new colony, there is reason to believe that he looked forward to 
more permanent results, and anticipated that Augusta would, in time, become 
a thriving city in the up-country as a counterpart to Savannah, near the coast. 
For several years after the establishment of Georgia, General Oglethorpe was 
the governing authority in the province, and seemed to aim at permanence in 
all he did. Thus, while fully armed with the royal authority to take possession 
of the new country, he relied, like Penn, fully as much on native consent as on 
kingly sanction, and made it one of his first endeavors to win over the Indians 
to a peaceful occupation of the soil by the whites. This was all the more nec- 
essary, since, after many bloody collisions, it had been agreed between the 
settlers of South Carolina and the savages, that the River Savannah was to be 
the dividing line between the red man and the pale-face. To the west of that 
river, no white man, even for trade or hunting, was to set his foot. The set- 
tlement of Georgia was, consequently, an infraction of this treaty ; and seeing 
that the settlement to be permanent, must be either by arms or negotiation, 
General Oglethorpe, at his landing, persuaded the Indians to a new treaty 
whereby the white man was to be allowed to settle along the western bank of 
the river. The same prudent foresight marked the general's course in the 
establishment of towns. From the specimens of early plats which survive, they 
seem all laid off on the same plan, namely, in broad, straight streets, intersect- 
ing at right angles, and having the lots intended for public purposes on one 
side the square, with an extraordinarily wide space or parade in front. In a 
word, the plan is that of a camp, as might have been expected from Ogle- 
thorpe's profession. While no written record remains of the fact, it is beyond 
question that Augusta was originally laid off on this plan. So thoroughly con- 
vinced is Colonel C. C. Jones, the eminent arch^ologist of Georgia, of a plan 
of the city having been made by General Oglethorpe that he made most care- 
ful search in the British Museum and British colony office for the original when 
abroad some years since, but unfortunately without success. The reader has 
but to cast his eye, however, on the present map of the city, to see that the 
contour of the municipality still retains the original idea of its founder. The 
limits of the first settlement are not now precisely ascertainable, but, on a plan 
of the city made about 1784, and still in existence, a certain portion of its pres- 
ent area, bounded by the Savannah River on the north, Elbert street on the 
east. Green on the south, and Washington on the west, is denominated " the 
Old Town," and this is, in all probability, the original Augusta. What adds 
to this probability is that, midway between Elbert and Washington lies a 
street which, from time immemorial, has been called Centre street, a name 



Limits Enlarged in 1780. 151 



• which would have no relevancy unless it were, so called as having originally 
bisected the town. To corroborate this, we have a provincial act of 1768 
which establishes "a ferry from the centre of the town of Augusta, upon Sa- 
vannah River, to the bluff on the opposite shore, in the province of South Car- 
olina," and Sherwood's Gazetteer says the ferry ran just where the bridge was 
afterwards built, to wit : at the foot of Centre street. We may, therefore, say 
that Augusta was originally bounded by Elbert, Greene and Washington 
streets, and the river. This gave three streets running at right angles to the 
river, namely, Washington, Centre and Elbert; and three running parallel to 
the river, to wit : Greene, Ellis and Reynolds, the names of the latter two be- 
ing those of the early royal governors, being an additional evidence of the an- 
tiquity of this part of the city. 

It does not appear what form of municipal government prevailed at this 
early day, but, as the population numbered several hundred soon after its first 
settlement, and, at certain seasons, there was an extraordinary influx of In- 
dians, there must have been some kind of local authority. The first distribu- 
tion of Georgia into political subdivisions was into two counties, namely. Sa- 
vannah county, comprising all north of Darien, and Frederica county compris- 
ing all south of that point, each county being under the supervision of a presi- 
dent and four assistants. This threw Augusta in Savannah county, and the 
local government was, doubtless, conducted by the commandant of the fort, 
under the orders of the president and assistants of that county. Some years 
later the colony was divided into eleven districts, namely, Abercorn and Go- 
shen, Acton, Augusta, Darien, Ebenezer, Joseph's Town, Little Ogeechee, 
Medway, Savannah, Skidaway and Vernonburg. In 1750 the trustees ordered 
a colonial assembly of sixteen members to be chosen, each district to be rep- 
resented in proportion to' its population, and, on this apportionment, the Au- 
gusta district sent two members, evidencing a considerable increase in its pop- 
ulation. 

In 1758 the districts became parishes, the district of Augusta becoming the 
parish of St. Paul, the act making this change providing that "from and after 
the seventeenth day of March, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight, the 
church erected in the town of Augusta, with the cemetery or burial place 
thereunto belonging, shall be the parish church and burial place of St. Paul." 
The same act empowered the churchwardens and vestrymen to assess rates 
for the repair of churches, the relief of the poor, and other parochial services. 

In 1780 the limits of Augusta were enlarged, and we begin to see the 
germs of a regular municipal government. By act of that year it was recited 
that " the vacant land above and below the town of Augusta, lying on Savan- 
nah River on the north, and joining the common in a line with the south 
street of the town running parallel with the river, and joining land of McCar- 
tan Campbell on the west, and Andrew McLean on the east, ought to be laid 



152 History of Augusta. 



out into lots and sold for the use of this State, in order to enlarge the limits of 
the said town;" and thereupon it was enacted "that five commissioners be 
appointed by this house, and the said commissioners so appointed, or any three 
of them, are hereby empowered to lay out the said vacant land in lots of one 
acre each, and also to lay out proper streets, and to arrange them with the 
others in the said town of Augusta, and the whole shall be included and called 
Augusta." This act appears to have extended the town limits to Lincoln street 
on the east, and to Jackson street on the west. The duties that devolved 
on the commissioners were numerous and important. They were directed to 
sell the lots at public sale, for one-half cash and the balance on twelve months' 
time ; no person, however, to be allowed to purchase more than one lot, and 
each purchaser to be required to give good security to settle and build upon 
his lot within two years after purchase. They were also directed to straighten 
the streets, which seem to have been encroached upon, and to make "the road 
on either side, up to Rae's Creek and down to the Sand Bar," conform to the 
streets. On one of "the public lots in Broad street" they were to build a 
court-house and jail, and were to reserve the other " for houses of public semi- 
naries and schools." They were to superintend the construction of all new 
houses, and see that they were at least twenty by sixteen feet, and if of wood, 
"framed and built in a workmanlike manner," and all houses were to be placed 
on such part of the lot as the commissioners should direct," to the end that the 
said town may be regularly built. They were also directed to reserve " two 
of the best lots in the centre line of the said town, and distant from each other, 
for houses of public worship," and to " lay out two acres of ground in the com- 
mon south of the said town for public cemeteries, each opposite the respective 
lots, and to cause the same to be cleared and fenced in." The act made sun- 
dry other provisions, which afford internal evidences of Augusta being, even at 
this early date, a point of recognized and growing importance. All suits at 
law were to be heard and determined there ; all criminal trials were also, to be 
had there ; all lots not built on and improved in the course of two years after 
the passage of the act were to be forfeited to the State, and sold 'out to such 
purchasers as would build ; and no burials were to take place within the town 
limits. The references in this act to the lots of the original town aftbrd still 
further proof that Augusta was originally laid out on some settled and recog- 
nized plan. The commissioners appointed to carry out the act were William 
Glascock, George Walton, Daniel M'Murphy, John Twiggs and George Wells, 
and this body of city fathers would doubtless have done good work for the 
town but for the pendency of the war between the king and the colonies, and 
the bloodshed and havoc which marked the struggle. In and about Augusta 
the dogs of war did their worst, and so ruthless and sanguinary was the com- 
bat that the famous Revolutionary soldier General Lee — "Lighthorse Harry," — 
says in his memoirs, "in no part of the South was the war conducted with so 



Augusta's Loyal Element. 153 

much barbarity as in this quarter." With the approach of the Revolution two 
parties developed themselves in the town. One favored the king, and sent 
him a loyal address, assuring him of their affection and support. The other 
side took the old Continental view of the question. It is pretty clear that at 
first the monarchical sentiment was very strong. Georgia was in some re- 
spects a colony of peculiar environments. The other provinces had been 
established for motives of ambition or pecuniary gain, but this had for its ori- 
gin the desire of the crown to furnish comfortable homes for distressed Eng- 
lishmen who from debt or misfortune had no future in life. In 1730 Viscount 
Percival, a benevolent nobleman, General Oglethorpe, a veteran officer who 
afterwards rose to be ranking general in the British service, and a number of 
other philanthropic gentlemen petitioned King George II. for a charter of in- 
corporation " as a charitable society by the name of the corporation for the 
purpose of establishing charitable colonies in America." The petitioners stated 
"that the cities of London and^ Westminster, and parts adjacent, do abound 
with great numbers of indigent persons who are reduced to such necessity as 
to become burdensome to the public, and who would be willing to seek a live- 
lihood in any of his majesty's plantations in America if they were provided 
with a passage and means of settling there," and went on to say that petition- 
ers were willing " to undertake the trouble and charge of transporting all such 
persons and families, provided they may obtain a grant of lands in South Car- 
olina for that purpose, together with such powers as shall enable them to con- 
tract with persons inclinable to settle there and to receive the charitable con- 
tributions and benefactions of all such persons as are willing to encourage so 
good a design." In order to understand this reference to a grant of land, in 
South Carolina, it must be borne in mind that prior to the founding of the 
colony of Georgia, the province of South Carolina extended westward "to the 
South Seas," it being the belief at that period that some vast body of water 
lay far inland of the continent. His majesty referred the petition to the Board 
of Trade, which in December, 1730, reported back in favor of granting the 
prayer of petitioners. The report says : " We are of the opinion his majesty 
may be graciously pleased to grant to the petitioners and to their successors 
forever, all that tract of land in his province of South Carolina lying between 
the Rivers Savannah and Alatamaha. to be bounded by the most navigable 
and largest branches of the Savannah and the most southerly branch of the 
Alatamaha, with the islands in the sea being opposite to the said land." It was 
also recommended that this terfitory should be erected into a separate colonial 
government, and that the society should have power to make laws and appoint 
officials therein, subject to the allowance and approval of the crown. On the 
coming in of this report it was amended so as to make the new province ex- 
tend Avestwardly to the South Seas, so as to include all the islands within 
twenty leagues of the coast, and so as to prohibit the grant of more than five 
20 



154 History of Augusta. 



hundred acres of land to any one person, and as thus amended, was received 
and approved. 

On June 9, 1732, the king, by his letters patent, incorporated Viscount 
Percival, General Oglethorpe, and their associates by the name of ."the trustees 
for establishing the colony of Georgia in America," and granted them the 
territory and powers above mentioned. The work of establishing the new 
colony at once began. General Oglethorpe himself headed the first ship load 
of emigrants, and the king sent a special letter of instructions to Governor 
Johnstone of South Carolina, setting forth that whereas the trustees had 
petitioned the crown to notify him of their charter, "that all due countenance 
and encouragement should be given for settling the said colony;" therefore, he 
was to register said charter among the archives of his province, and "to give 
all due countenance and encouragement for settling of the said colony of 
Georgia, by being aiding and assisting to such of his majesty's subjects as shall 
come into the said province of South Carolina for that purpose." Anthony 
Stokes, the royal chief justice of Georgia from 1769 to 1783, gives a lively 
picture of the favor and protection extended this particular colony by the 
crown. He says: "Georgia continued under the king's government to be 
one of the most free and happy countries in the world. Justice was regularly 
and impartially administered; oppression was unknown; the taxes levied on 
the subject were trifling; every man that had industry became opulent. The 
people there were more particularly indebted to the crown than those in any- 
other colony; immense sums were expended by government in settling and 
protecting that country; troops of rangers were kept up for several years 
the civil government was annually provided for by vote of the House of Com- 
mons in Great Britain and most of the inhabitants owed every acre of land 
they possessed to the king's free gift; in short there was scarce a man in the 
province that did not lie under particular obligations to the crown. As a 
proof of the amazing progress that Georgia made, I should observe that when 
Governor Reynolds went to that province in 1754, the exports did not amount 
to /"30,000 a year, but at the breaking out of the Civil War they could not be 
less than i^200,000 sterling." We have the figures of the colonial tax levied 
for a number of years which go to show that taxation could not have been 
onerous, and that, judging from the ratio of increase, the colony must have 
been rapidly growing in wealth and population. The figures are: 

£ .. d. f. 

For the year 1759 820 502 

" " 1760 1,118 3 8 

" " 1761 1,373 II 7 

" " " 1762 1,421 5 

" " 1763 1,934 9 

" " " 1764 2,117 13 o 2 



The Captured Cannon. 155 



£ s. d. f. 

For the year 1765 '.599 7 i 2 

" 1766 J. 925 6 I 

" 1767 1,843 II 4 2 

" 1768 3,375 4 I 

" 1769 3,046 16 8 2 

" 1770 3,355 902 

" 1773 5. 171 15 10 2 

With the above data before us, we can see why the loyal sentiment was 
strong in Augusta, as throughout Georgia, at the outbreak of the Revolution- 
ary struggle. The people had been kindly treated by the British Crown. 
None of the embroilments and quarrels which had embittered the colonists 
against the king in other provinces had taken place in Georgia. Prior to the 
bloodshed at Lexington, the revolutionary sentiment was very evidently quite 
weak in Georgia, and even after the first clash of arms was heard, the spirit 
of loyalty was still strong. Out of this fact grew acts which afterwards resulted 
bloodily for Augusta. In Augusta, as in Savannah, was formed an order or 
association called Liberty Boys, devoted to the American cause. The Augusta 
branch paid special attention to expelling such members of the community as 
were supposed to favor the royal cause, and were, in particular, exceedingly 
severe on one Thomas Brown. Brown was a native of Augusta and seems 
to have been a man of fixed views and determined courage. On his escape 
lie joined the British and, being possessed of great native military ability, soon 
rose to high command in the service. Scarcely had the above mentioned act 
■of 1780 been passed and the municipal board organized thereunder, when a 
British force under the command of Brown, then Colonel Brown, of his 
majesty's service, took possession of the town. His resentment was written 
■on Augusta in letters of blood and fire. After a prolonged and desperate 
struggle, elsewhere narrated, he was captured with all his forces, and British 
domination in Augusta ended. Three of the cannon taken on this occasion 
are still to be seen in the city. One is in possession of the artillery company, 
and occasionally used in firing salutes; a second surmounts the grave, in the 
city cemetery, of a Revolutionary soldier; and the third is half imbeded in 
the soil at the corner of Ellis and Mcintosh streets. Why it is placed there 
no man seems to know, but the probabilities are that it marks the location of 
the tower whence the Americans poured down a fire into Fort Cornwallis. the 
last British stronghold in Augusta, which swept its garrison from their guns 
and compelled its surrender. 

After the expulsion of the British, the General Assembly of Georgia again 
convened in Augusta, at that time the seat of the State government, and, in an 
act passed in 1 782' we find a moving picture of the times. While not so stated 
in so many words, the scene was doubtless taken from what had occurred in 



156 History of Augusta. 



Augusta. After stating that many citizens of Georgia had "been guilty of 
treason against the State, and the authority of the same, by traitorously adher- 
ing to the king of Great Britain, and by aiding, assisting, abetting, and com- 
forting the generals and other ofificers civil and military of the said king, to en- 
force his authority in and over this State and the good people of the same;" 
it went on to say that " said treasons had been followed with a series of mur- 
ders, rapine, and devastation as cruel as they were unnecessary, whereby order 
and justice were banished the land, and lawless power established on high, ex- 
hibiting the melancholy picture of Indians inflicting dreadful punishments on 
both old and young of the faithful and peaceful citizens of this State; women and. 
children sitting on the ruins of their houses, perishing by famine and cold ; 
whilst others were compelled, in the midst of a rigorous season, to depart the 
State, being previously plundered of both their and their children's clothing, 
and every other necessary that might tend to mitigate the uncommon severi- 
ties exercised on the softer sex and their innocent babes. Nor was this all, 
whilst these days of blood and British anarchy continued among us, and com- 
manded executions of our citizens, taken in arms in defense of their invaluable 
rights, to take place, executions as unauthorized by the laws of nations, as 
they were cruel in themselves, and only to be exceeded, if possible, by the 
abandoned profligacy of setting torches to temples dedicated to the service of 
the most high God, whereby they completed a violation of every right human 
and divine." 

Fired by the very recital of these wrongs the act proceeds, in the nature of 
a bill of attainder, to proclaim as traitors a long list of persons, not forgetting 
Colonel Thomas Brown, the author of the miseries of Augusta. They were 
commanded to leave the State, under penalty of death if they returned, and 
their property was sequestrated and ordered to be sold. Some of the land 
titles of Augusta run back to deeds given under this act by the commissioners 
of confiscated estates. The recollection of British severity long lingered in 
Augusta, and we remember to have heard from an aged matron that in her 
early days she saw a venerable lady, whose cottage, out where the Presby- 
terian Church now stands, was attacked by the Indian allies of the British, her 
babe slain and she herself scalped and left for dead. From another mother in 
Israel we have heard that after the Revolution one Fox, a Tory, settled in Au- 
gusta at the corner of Broad and Washington streets — where a marble slab let 
high into the building, still proclaims it " Fox's Corner," — and, to tlie huge 
disgust and indignation of the good people of the town, would ever and anon, 
of a bright, sunshiny day, hang his red coat out of the window, as he alleged 
simply to sun it, but as the indignant citizens declared, to taunt them with the 
sight of the hated British uniform once more within rifle shot of the site of Fort 
Cornwallis. Colonel Thomas Brown, who had wrought such ruin on the town, 
escaped unhurt after his surrender, though at one time the Continental officers" 



Trustees of Augusta. 157 

were compelled to turn out their troops to protect him from the American mil- 
itiamen who thirsted for his blood. He was sent to Savannah ; there organ- 
ized a battalion of negro infantry in the British service ; went thence, on the 
final surrender, to England, and was rewarded for his loyalty with an appoint- 
ment in one of the West India islands and a gratuity of ^30,000. Not satis- 
fied with this, he surreptitiously affixed the colonial seal to some false grants of 
land, and was convicted in London of forgery. Whether he was hanged ac- 
cordingly does not appear. 

But Augusta lost no time in repining. The lots ordered to be sold under 
the act of 1780 had not been built on; the church had been burned; there 
was no court-house or academy, but steps were at once taken to build up the 
waste places. In 1783 the Legislature declared that, while the act of 1780 
had not proved effectual, " the same reasons continued for the encouragement 
and enlargement of the town of Augusta"; and thereupon selected another 
board of commissioners, appointing William Glascock, George Walton, Joseph 
Pannel, Andrew Burns, and Samuel Jack as the board. The act then pro- 
ceeded to forfeit the town lots which had not been built on and ordered the 
commissioners to expose them to sale anew, one-fourth cash, one-fourth in 
one year thereafter, and the residue in three years; deferred payments to be 
secured by mortgage. Every purchaser, as part of the contract of sale was, 
within two years from date of purchase, " to build, or cause to be built, a ten- 
antable brick, stone, or frame house, not less than sixteen feet by twenty-four," 
on his lot, under penalty of the same reverting to the State. Particular and 
special attention was also given to the erection and endowment of an institntion 
of learning. After building a church, and reserving a sufficiency of land for 
public purposes, all the other lots were to be sold and the proceeds used to 
establish and maintain a seminary. This is the origin he Richmond 

Academy, an institution which still exists, and is the olde seat of learning 
in the United States with the exception of Yale, Harvard, d Princeton. 

The act of 1783 constituted the board of commissioners of Augusta trus- 
tees for all the purposes mentioned in the act, namely the improvement of the 
town and the erection and support of the academy, but did not in express terms 
confer general powers of municipal government. In 1786. however, another 
act was passed which did so. It provided that "tiie board shall have power to 
carry into execution in the town of Augusta, the same regulations and powers 
as the commissioners of the town of Savannah may lawfully do there." The 
acts of 1780, 1783, and 1786 therefore operated, when taken together, as a 
sort of charter for Augusta ; and up to the year 1798, when the charter of the 
present city was granted, Augusta, with a brief exception, whereof more 
hereafter, was governed by a board of commissioners. This board, as we learn 
from an act passed in 1835, was considered as being in reality made up by 
two bodies, or rather, had two sets of powers, one as trustees of the town of 



158 History of Augusta. 

^ • 

Augusta and the other as trustees of Richmond Academy. This act of 1786 
made another alteration in the hmits of Augusta, the trustees being directed to 
add another row of lots on the south side of the town, which seems to have ex- 
tended Augusta to the present Telfair street. Edward Telfair was governor 
in this year, 1786, whence, no doubt, the name given to the new street. 

In 1789 the Legislature incorporated Augusta and Savannah in one and 
the same act, the earlier statutes of Georgia being frequently a sad farrago of 
all sorts of subjects. A bill seems to have been regarded as a sort of sausage 
into which legislators were at liberty to cram all kinds of material. This evil, 
it may be here remarked, finally led to the rule that a law should relate to but 
one subject matter, which has been adopted from Georgia into the constitu- 
tions of almost all the other States. The act of 1789 incorporated the town of 
Savannah as the city of Savannah, but left Augusta still a town; and for some 
reason, probably because the good people of Augusta of that day resented this 
inferiority in title, the charter of 1789 found little favor. True, it gave Au- 
gusta a mayor and board of aldermen, as it did Savannah, but even this placebo 
did not heal the first affront. The people took offense at the act itself and 
every part and parcel thereof Its very phraseology seems to have become 
obnoxious, and when Augusta did become a city the charter studiously pro- 
vided that the chief executive of the municipality should be styled not mayor, 
but " intendant," and intendant it remained till 18 17. As to alderman, that 
word was also scoured, and has never been the official designation of an Au- 
gusta city father from that day to this. In 1841, a half century afterwards, an- 
act was passed to create a board of aldermen in Augusta, but in the very next 
year was incontinently repealed. " Member of Council " is now, and has, for 
nearly a century, been the only legal official appellation. 

It is unfortunately the case that the text of this act of 1789, so far as rela- 
tive to Augusta, does not appear in the statute book, and we are therefore, 
unable to give the terms of this unpopular charter. It appears, however, that 
the mayor and aldermen therein provided for were to be appointed, not elected, 
and that no appointments were made for some years, and that, in the mean- 
time, the government by board of trustees continued. In 1790 the trade of 
Augusta with South Carolina had increased to such an extent that it became 
necessar}' to have a bridge over the Savannah ; and, the trustees having sur- 
rendered their ferry right in his favor, the Legislature granted Wade Hamp- 
ton the right to construct and maintain a toll bridge from the foot of Centre 
street to the Carolina shore. The grantee was to keep up a bridge of at least 
sixteen feet in width ; was to pass the master, teachers, and scholars of the 
Richmond Academy free ; was to pay the trustees an annual rent of £so, and 
charge only the tolls set out in the act, which were the same as the old ferry 
had charged. Among the items appear a couple which present a curious pic- 
ture of the times, to wit: " for every rolling hogshead witli two horses, and 



Charter of 1789 Repealed. 159. 



drawn, one shilling and two pence ; for every rolling hogshead with one horse, 
and drawn, one shilling." In those days tobacco was a staple in Georgia and 
South Carolina, and Augusta was a notable inspection point. By law the hogs- 
head was not to exceed forty-nine inches in length, and thirty-nine inches in 
the head, and was to weigh at least nine hundred and fifty pounds nett. They 
were very stoutly coopered, and fitting a sort of axle to them and shafts or 
pole, the planter trundled them along the road to market after the fashion of a 
huge garden roller. 

In 1 79 1 we find that " the Mayor and Aldermen to be appointed for the 
Corporation of the Town of Augusta," were made ex-officio commissioners of 
court-house and jail. 

In 1 794 occurs another instance of the rivalry of the time between Augusta 
and Savannah. The latter place had two fire engines, and desired a fire com- 
pany chartered. Augusta having but one engine, at once purveys herself an- 
other, and has that incorporated as the Augusta Fire Company. The original 
by-laws of this venerable organization are still preserved. One article is that 
the members are to dine together every Fourth of July ; each member was to 
provide himself at his own expense with a white oil cloth cover for his hat, let- 
tered with the company's name, also two fire buckets, and " four bags, each con- 
taining three yards of strong Osnaburgs, and drawn at top with a suitable cord," 
buckets and bags to be similarly lettered. The buckets were to put out fires ; 
the bags to save goods. There was to be a monthly inspection of buckets and 
bags, and any dereliction in this particular met a fine of five dollars. The 
company was to meet, buckets in hand, at the engine-house, at sun rise, on 
the first Saturday of each month to clean the engine. The officers bore com- 
missions from the governor, and when on duty carried white wands six feet 
long, and lettered as above. 

In this same year, 1794, the mechanics of Augusta became an incorporated 
company under the name of " The Augusta Association of Mechanics." The 
act states that they had petitioned for a charter, because " desirous of placing 
their various crafts on a more social footing than heretofore, and of establishing, 
by their united exertions and contributions a lasting fund for the relief and sup- 
port of such of their unfortunate brethren, or their families as are, or may be- 
come objects of charity." The petitioners are stated in the act to be William 
Longstreet, president; John Catlett, vice-president; Thomas Bray, secretary; 
Robert Creswell, treasurer, and Hugh Magee, William Dearmond, Baxter 
Pool, John Cook, Joseph Stiles, Angus Martin, John Stiles, Hiel Chatfield, 
Edward Primrose, Conrad Liverman, and Isaac Wingate. 

In 1795 so much of the act of 1789 as chartered Augusta as a town with a 
mayor and aldermen was repealed, the act stating that " experience hath proven 
that so much of the act is deemed incompatible with the interest and the wishes 
of the inhabitants thereof" The act proceeded to say " and it shall be the 



i6o HisroRY OF Augusta. 

duty of the mayor and aldermen now in office, under said act, and they are 
hereby required to adjust, and within six months from and after the passing of 
this act, finally to settle and close the books and accounts of the corporation, 
and to deposit the same, together with the funds thereof, with the commission- 
ers of the court-house and jail, to be appointed for the county of Richmond 
who shall hold such property, real and personal, as may have been acquired 
by the said corporation, in trust, for and to the use of the said town of Au- 
gusta and the inhabitants thereof, provided that nothing herein contained shall 
prevent the collection of the corporation tax already levied, which sums shall 
be deposited with the commissioners aforesaid." 

With the repeal of the charter of 1789, the government of Augusta reverted 
to the board of trustees, as we find by act of the next year, 1796, which di- 
rected "The Trustees of the Town of Augusta," to do a number of things for 
the good of the place. Among other things they were to rectify an inconve- 
nience growing out of the extraordinary width of Broad street in the original 
plan of the town. It has been already mentioned that the original Broad 
street extended from Washington to Elbert, and was laid off by Oglethorpe as 
more of a parade ground than a street, being three hundred feet wide ; and 
that, in extending Broad street east to Lincoln street, and west to Campbell 
street, the act of 1780 required that width to be preserved, it not being until 
1784 that the width was reduced to one hundred and sixty-four feet. 

This direction seems to have been complied with only so far as the exten- 
sion east was concerned, the extension to Campbell street being made much 
narrower. In laying out the town below Lincoln under the act of 1786, Broad 
street was also narrowed, so that in 1796 the original portion of that street was 
sixty-four feet wider than it was above or below. To add to the confusion, 
the street on its south side was straight its entire length, the inequality being 
wholly on the north side. To remedy this, the north side lots were extended 
sixty-four feet into the street. The same act gives some interesting informa- 
tion respecting the "Yazoo Fresh," as it is called from occurring the same year 
as the Yazoo Fraud, or that memorable land speculation which occupies such 
a space in the history of Georgia. The act says : 

" Whereas, The aforesaid Town of Augusta hath latterly sustained con- 
siderable injury by the inundation of an extraordinary flood of water in the 
Savannah River, and which was considerably heightened on account of the 
direction of the current immediately against the town, for remedy whereof, Be 
it enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the trustees of the aforesaid 
town of Augusta, within eight months from and after the passing of this act, 
under such scheme, regulation, and restrictions as the said trustee may deem 
most expedient fully to effect the end of erecting and completing one or more 
sufficient pier or piers, in such part or parts of the river as will, in their judg- 
ment most effectually divert the current of the same from off the said town ; 
provided, that such piers shall not obstruct the navigation of the said river." 



Augusta Incorporated. i6i 



This Yazoo freshet swept away the bridge, but, as usual, the people of 
Augusta lost no time in idle lamentations. An act was immediately passed 
directing it to be rebuilt. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Augusia Incorporated — Charter of 1798 — Thomas Gumming, P^irst Intendant — City 
Limits — Rise of the Cotton Interest — Whitney and his Gin — Price Current of 1802 — Inten- 
dant Murray^ Intendant Hobby — Intendant Flournoy — Intendant Catlett — Assize of Bread 
-^ The Steamboat of 1808 — Intendant Hutchinson — Intendants Walker and Jones — Gover- 
nor Matthews — Beards President Adams —Intendant Leigh — Panic of 1814 — Intendant 
Called Mayor — Mayor Freeman Walker Becomes United States Senator — Mayor Ware be- 
comes United States Senator — Mayors Reid and Holt — La Fayette's Visit — Mayor Hale 

Rise of the Railway System — Mayors Phinizy, Hook, and Dye — The Algerine Law — Au- 
gusta Canal — Mexican War — Mayor Ford. 

ABOUT 1796 it became apparent that the device of a board of trustees 
appointed by the Legislature would no longer suffice for the government 
of the town. In 1797 the Legislature itself declares that a full board was such 
a hindrance to business that thereafter a majority of members should consti- 
tute " The board of trustees for the academy and town of Augusta." 

Finally, by act of January 31, 1798. the town ceased to be a town, and was 
recognized and chartered as a city. This instrument was skillfully and care- 
fully drawn, and is still the organic law of the city. It begins, as is usual with 
these old-fashioned acts, with a preamble expressive of why it was passed. 

" Whereas, From the extent and population of the town of Augusta, its 
growing importance, both with respect to increase of inhabitants and diffusive 
commerce, it is indispensably necessary that many regulations should be made 
for the preservation of peace and good order within the same ; and 

" Whereas, From the many weighty and important matters that occupy 
the attention of the Legislature at their general meeting, it has hitherto been 
found inconvenient, and may hereafter become more so, for them to devise, 
consider, deliberate on, and determine all such laws and regulations as emer- 
gencies, or the local circumstances of the said town, may from time to time 
require ; 

" Be it therefore enacted. That from and immediately after the passing of 
this act all persons citizens of the United States, and residing one year within the 
said town, and having a freehold or lease for years of a lot within the same or 
the village of Springfield, or between the said village and town, shall be deemed, 
and they are hereby declared to be, a body politic and corporate, and the said 
21 



1 62 History of Augusta. 



town shall hereafter be called and known by the name of THE CiTY OF AU- 
GUSTA, and shall be divided into the following districts, to wit : All lots situate 
below the cross street running from the river Savannah, between the market- 
house and the house of Mrs. Fox, to be called and known as district number 
one ; all the lots between said street, and the cross street running from the said 
river, between the house of Mr. Andrew Jones, and the house occupied by 
Collin Reed and Company to be called and known by district number two ; 
and all the lots above that street, including the village of Springfield, shall be 
called and known by district number three." 

We may pause here to remark that this much of the act throws a strong 
light on the limits of the city in 1798. The village of Springfield was located 
about where the upper market formerly stood, that is, at Marbury street, and 
by the act of 1783, as will be remembered, the western boundary of Augusta 
was at or about Jackson street. This left an intervening space between the 
town and village, answering to the area now comprised between Jackson and 
Cumming, or possibly Kollock street. This space, as well as the village of 
Springfield, then a few houses and a negro church, was included in Augusta, 
so that the act chartering the city also extended its limits to Marbury street. 

In speaking, in his sketch "The Gander Pulling," of Augusta in 1798, 
Judge Longstreet, author of " Georgia Scenes," says: "Those who are curi- 
ous to know where Springfield stood at the time of which I am speaking, have 
only to take their position at the intersection of Broad and Marbury streets, 
in the city of Augusta, and they will be in the very heart of old Springfield. 
Sixty steps west and as many east of this position will measure the whole 
length of this Jeffersonian republican village, which never boasted more than 
.four dwelling houses; and Broad street measures its width, if we exclude 
kitchens and stables." And again : " In 1798 Campbell street was the west- 
■ern verge of Augusta, a limit to which it had advanced but a few years before, 
from Jackson street. Thence to Springfield led a large road, now built up on 
either side, and forming a continuation of Broad street. This road was cut 
across obliquely by a deep gully, the bed of which was an almost impassable 
bog, which entered the road about one hundred yards below Kollock street on 
the south, and left it about thirty yards below Kollock street on the north side 
of now Broad street. It was called Campbell's Gully, from the name of the 
gentleman through whose possessions and near whose dwelling it wound its 
way to the river." 

The form of government established by the charter was this : the first and 
third districts were to elect two members each ; the third district was to elect 
three ; these members were out of their own number, or from the citizens at 
large, to select an intendant of the city, and the intendant and members were 
to be known and styled by the name of " The City Council of Augusta." Any 
person elected intendant and refusing to serve was to forfeit the sum of thirty 



Whitney and the Cotton Gin. 163 

dollars to the city; a member of council refusing was to pay twenty dollars. 
Elections were to be annual, and only freeholders or leaseholders were com- 
petent to vote or hold office. The powers of the council extended to making 
any " by-law or regulation that shall appear to them requisite and necessary 
for the security, welfare, and convenience of the said city, or for preserving 
peace, order, and good government within the same," and they were empow- 
ered " to make such assessments on the inhabitants of Augusta, or those who 
hold taxable property within the same, as shall appear to them expedient." 
These franchises have been found so ample that the city, even in the long tract 
of ninety years has found little occasion to apply to the Legislature for exten- 
sion of its authority. They have also been found flexible enough to meet all 
the varying exigencies of that long period. The early restrictions on munici- 
pal suffrage have long been removed ; the intendant is now called mayor ; the 
districts are called wards, and new ones have been added ; but, in all its essen- 
tial and substantial parts, the charter of 1798 is still the fundamental law of the 
city. The first council consisted of Messrs. George Walker, James Pearre, Rob- 
ert Creswell, Andrew Innis, Isaac Herbert, and William Longstreet, and Thomas 
Gumming was chosen intendant. For a few years there is a break in our muni- 
cipal records, but, beginning with 1803, we have a complete list of the chief 
magistrates of the city to date. From the opening of the nineteenth century, 
the history of Augusta is that of a steady and continuous development, despite 
war, flood, conflagration and fever. As if, in her early days, she had had her 
quantum of hostilities, the actual tramp of contending forces was never heard 
in her streets, nor was the torch ever applied to her houses. Such sufferings 
as she had were reflected, and her history during this period, while interesting, 
is not marked by any of the terrible and bloody incidents of her early days. 

The opening of the nineteenth century was marked in Augusta by the rise 
of the cotton industry. 

In 1 79 1 the entire export of cotton from the United States was but 189,- 
500 pounds, all told, or about 379 bales; but, at that time, an inventive genius 
was at work on a machine destined to revolutionize the fictile industries of the 
world. Eli Whitney was born in Westburough, Mass., on Decembers, 1765, 
and, after completing his education at Yale, came to Georgia, with a view of 
entering the legal profession. He made his home with the widow of General 
Greene, the Revolutionary hero ; and, as tradition has it, had his attention di- 
rected by that lady to the subject of a machine for preparing cotton for market. 
In those times the seed was laboriously and imperfectly separated from the lint 
by hand, and Mrs. Greene seems to have foreseen that important results 
would follow a speedier process. Young Whitney worked out the idea, and 
in 1793 received a patent for his famous cotton gin. His experiments were 
made in and near Augusta, and about two miles south of the city is still to be 
seen the dam used by him to run his works. 



i64 History of Augusta. 

Sometimes it is said that Wiiitney is not the real inventor of this device, but 
purloined the idea from its original author, the statement being that a citizen 
of South Carolina constructed a gin toward the close of the eighteenth century, 
and that Whitney, surreptitiously gaining access to his workshop, carried off 
the plan and constructing a machine patented it as his own. This stor\' is told 
with great circumstantiality, and the house in which the machine was originally 
constructed is said to be still standing within sight of Augusta, in Hamburg, 
on the left hand side of the road, just as you cross the Savannah River bridge. 

The contemporaneous history of Whitney's times, however, shows pretty 
clearly that he is really the inventor. The patent was issued him in 1793, 
and by act of December 19, 1801, (5 Statutes South Carolina, page 427) the 
Legislature of South Carolina purchased from him the right to use his patent 
in that State for the sum of $50,000. 

In the Augusta Herald of December 30, 1801, the editor mentions the pas- 
sage of this act, and says: " In the course of the negotiations between the 
Legislature of South Carolina and the patentee, we understand that every satis- 
factory evidence of the originality of the invention was produced, and its prin- 
ciples so fully explained by the ingenious inventor that little or no diversity of 
opinion existed as to the propriety of making the contract." 

Now, if Whitney had really robbed a citizen of South Carolina of the in- 
vention, it is hardly likely that the Legislature of that very State would, but 
eight years after, have permitted him, as against one of its people, to profit 
by the wrong. The statement, just quoted, that during the negotiations be- 
tween Whitney and the Legislature, " every satisfactory evidence of the or- 
iginality of the invention was produced," seems to justify the inference that 
some question may have been raised, but if so, the Legislature was so fully 
satisfied on investigation of Whitney's right, " that little or no diversity of opin- 
ion existed as to the propriety of making the contract." 

The strength of this contemporaneous testimony can hardly be overcome, 
but, if more were needed, we find it in two acts of the Legislature of Tennes- 
see, one passed in November, 1803, and the other in September, 1806 The 
act of 1803 is modeled on the South Carolina statute of 1801, save that the 
price .igreed on was but $35,000; and in 1806, in order to make the act of 
1803 more fully operative, there was passed "an act to carry into effect a con- 
tract between the State of Tennessee and Eli Whitney and Phineas Miller." 
The preamble to this act also indicates that some question was made as to 
Whitney being the real inventor, and shov\s that, a second time, the issue was 
found in his favor, reading thus : 

"Whereas, it has been made to appear to the satisfaction of this General 
Assembly that Eli Whitney, from whom this State purchased the patent right of 
a machine for cleaning cotton, commonly called the saw gin, is the true inven- 
tor of said machine, therefore," etc., etc. 



Early Cotton Interests. 165 



The new invention at once gave a tremenduous impetus to the cotton in- 
terest. As early as 1796 the Legislature of Georgia passed " an act for the 
inspection of cotton," a sure proof of the product being, even at that day, re- 
garded as a staple. In 1798 another act was passed to encourage cotton man- 
ufactures, and in the next year Governor Jackson informs the General Assem- 
bly, in his annual message, that " the article is rapidly advancing to the head 
of American exports, and that Georgia cotton is taking the lead in most for- 
eign markets." 

At the September term, 1800, of Richmond Superior Court, the grand jury 
say in their general presentments: "The article of cotton having become a 
principal staple of this State, in the packing and bagging of which considerable 
frauds have been committed, to prevent which we recommend legislative inter- 
ference." 

From this presentment it is quite clear that, as early as iSoo, Augusta was 
quite a cotton emporium. As to the complaints of false packing, it is not un- 
likely that, in the then infant state of cotton culture and preparation for mar- 
ket, much of what is put down as deception was really due to ignorance. It 
adds to this view that the complaint was not confined to Georgia, since we 
read in an Augusta paper of September 25, 1800, that the merchants of Char- 
leston appointed a committee to consider how to protect the credit of South 
Carolina cotton, which committee reported that they found no inspection law 
necessary, but would recommend an act requiring that the name of the pro- 
ducer and the locality where raised be stamped upon the bags. 

We have already stated that in 1791, two years before the invention of the 
gin, the entire export from the United States was but 189,500 pounds, or about 
379 bales, all told. For the year ending October i, 1800, the export from 
Georgia alone was 3,444,420 pounds, or 6,889 bales. 

In 1802 a Liverpool price current quotes Georgia sea island cotton, 26 and 
35d; upland, 14^ and 15. In 1806 the Augusta quotation was 15 and I5f 
cents; in 1808, it was 12 and 13; in 1810, it was 10 and iii; figures intimat- 
ing a rapid increase in acreage and yield. The development of this staple 
gave a great impetus to Augusta. Huge warehouses were erected, and foun- 
dations, broad and deep, were laid of the immense cotton business the city now 
possesses. 

One of the events of 1800 in -Augusta was the death here of the admiral of 
the American navy during the Revolutionary War. In the Augusta Herald, 
under date of July 16, 1800, we read this: 

"Died, on Friday last, of a violent billious remittent fever. Commodore Oli- 
ver Bowen. As a mark of respect for the services rendered by him in the 
American war his remains were interred the next day with military honors, by 
the Augusta Volunteer companies of Infantry and Rangers." 

This ancient worthy, one of the few naval heroes of the Revolution, lies 
buried in St. Paul's churchyard in Augusta, where his tomb may be still seen. 



i66 History of Augusta. 



The schedule of the Augusta and Savannah stage coach hne of this period 
is as follows : Leave Augusta, Saturday 7 A. M. ; arrive at Savannah on Mon- 
day at 9 A. M., fifty hours to the one hundred and thirty-one miles; fare nine 
dollars, with fourteen pounds baggage ; all over, seven cents per pound. 

The fervor of the spirit of '']6 at this time is something remarkable. The 
Fourth of July was one of the institutions of the country. The military fired 
salutes, the orator of the day exhausted rhetoric in adulation to " Columbia," 
and the toasts at the banquet were something astonishing, as witness these 
choice extracts: "The Day — may it always frown on Royalty;" " May the 
wing of liberty never lose a feather;" "The American Eagle — may she hold 
out her olive branch to all men, so long as consistent with her dignity and 
honor, but not a moment longer." Rather a curious contemporaneous expo- 
sition of the sex of the national bird. 

We find that Augusta had a Tammany Society, and that this toast is given 
at its annual dinner: " St. Tammany, the tutelary saint of America ; may his ex- 
ample teach us to prefer death to the loss of liberty." 

In 1803-4 John Murray was intendant, but the municipal annals present 
nothing of interest 

In 1805 William J. Hobby was intendant. This gentleman was long a resi- 
dent of Augusta; carried on the business of a stationer and journalist, and was 
for years editor of the Herald. 

In 1806 General Thomas Flournoy was intendant. He was one of the com- 
missioners who ran the boundary line between North Carolina and Georgia, 
and during his term of office quite a breeze of war agitated Augusta. The 
Chesapeake was fired into by the Leopard and forced to pull down her flag- 
The American vessel was not cleared for action and fired but one gun, that be- 
ing discharged by a coal which an officer took with his fingers from the cook's 
galley. The indignation throughout the country was intense, and President 
Jefferson declared it unequaled by anything that had occurred since the firing 
on the militia at Lexington in 1775 Captain John Neilson of the Augusta 
Rangers, and Captain George W. Evans, of the Augusta Independent Blues, 
tendered their services to the president, who responded in a handsome letter of 
thanks. 

In 1808 John Catlett became intendant, and the city council gave a curious 
exhibition of their powers, passing an ordinance to prescribe an " assize of 
bread," providing that when flour was six dollars per barrel, the twelve and 
one-half cent loaf should weigh two pounds and nine ounces; and the six 
and one-fourth cent loaf, one pound and four ounces. If of fine flour, the 
weights were to be two pounds and thirteen ounces, and one pound and six 
ounces. In this year Mr. William Longstreet, who as we have already seen, 
was president of "The Augusta Association of Mechanics," operated a steam- 
boat on the Savannah River opposite Augusta. As early as 1788 the General 



Governor Matthews. 167 



Assembly had given him a patent on an invention of this kind, and in 1790 
he reports to the governor that he is making satisfactory progress in perfect- 
ing his discovery. Mr. Longstreet also operated successfully a steam cotton- 
gin and saw-mill in Augusta long before this date. The evidence is very 
strong that the honor of the invention of the steamboat belongs to him. In 
the Augusta press of this date we also find mention of another invention which 
seems to have been the germ of the sewing machine. " It consists of a small 
wheel and pinion, a spindle, a fly to conduct the thread on the broach, and a 
temper pin to regulate the velocity of the broach, beside a rock-head on which 
the raw material is fixed. The whole machine is worked by a handle." 

From 1809 to 181 1 Joseph Hutchinson was intendant. He was the first 
clerk of the city council of Augusta, and under his administration the city 
limits were enlarged and defined, and some useful regulations made. A new 
row of lots was added to the city on the south side of the city, parallel to Tel- 
fair street, and the new street was named Walker, after Freeman Walker, 
afterwards the first mayor. On January 13, 181 1, Augusta was visited with an 
earthquake, the vibrations continuing till July. 

In 18 1 2 James S. Walker served as intendant for a portion of the year. Sea- 
born Jones filling out his term, and being chosen intendant in 181 3 for the full 
term. Mr. Jones was a lawyer of eminence, and long prominent in public 
affairs. He was one of the board of trustees of Augusta in 1790, and in 1825 
during the Indian disturbances in Upper Georgia, was one of the commission- 
ers charged with their settlement. 

In 1 8 12 Governor Matthews died in Augusta. He was a soldier of dis- 
tinction in the Revolution, and by his undaunted courage made his regiment, 
the Ninth Virginia, one of the best in the Continental service. At the battle 
of Brandywine, this regiment and one other stood firm amid the first disas- 
trous rout, and thus enabled Washington to rally the rest of his troops. At 
Germantown Governor Matthews attacked the British with such fury as to put 
their best grenadiers to flight, and captured an entire regiment. The governor 
was very proud of his military record, and used to swear that he and George 
Washington had saved the country. He was twice governor of Georgia, and 
during his last term signed the Yazoo Act. Tradition says that his secretary, 
who was violently opposed to the bill, dipped the governor's pen in oil so it 
would not write, and his excellency was compelled to cut a new quill before 
he could append his name. Notwitstanding his signature of the bill. Gover- 
nor Matthews was always popular, the people feeling he was a rough, unedu- 
cated soldier, who had been overreached by the land speculators lobby. In 
person this eccentric executive was short and stout, red faced and fair- haired. 
His head was thrown back a la game cock, and no man on earth was his 
superior but George Washington. Once the Legislature had some doubts of 
his election. "What are these fellows about," quoth he, "that they do not 



i68 History of Augusta. 



let me know they are" organized and ready to receive my message." His sec- 
retary replied they were discussing his election. "By the Eternal ! " said the 
governor, "if they don't recognize me, I'll cut an avenue from this office 
through them ! " After Governor Matthews's second term President Adams 
nominated him for governor of the Mississippi Territory, but withdrew the 
nomination. 

The governor at once set out for Washington, in top boots, huge ruffles at 
wrists and breast, and a long sword at his side. On his arrival in Philadelphia, 
then capital of the United States, he made directly to the president's house, 
hitched his horse, and gave a thundering knock at the door, his revolutionary 
sword at his thigh, and three-cornered cocked hat on his head. On the serv- 
ant opening, he demanded to see the president. The answer was that the 
president was engaged. Quoth the governor to the lackey, " I presume your 
business is to convey messages to the president. Now, if you do not instantly 
inform him that a gentleman wishes to see him, your head shall answer the 
consequences." The servant reported that a strange old fellow was at the door 
who would take no denial. "Let him in," said Mr. Adams, and in strode the 
governor in a towering rage. " I presume you are Mr. Adams, president of 
the United States." The president bowed. " My name is Matthews, some- 
times called Governor Matthews; well known at the battle of Germantown, 
however, as Colonel Matthews of the Virginia line. Now, sir, I understand 
that you nominated me in the Senate of the United States to be governor of 
the Mississippi Territory, and that afterwards you took back the nomination. 
Sir, if you had known me, you would not have taken the nomination back. 
If you did not know me, you should not have nominated me to so important 
an office. Now, sir, unless you can satisfy me, your station as president of 
these United States shall not screen you from my vengeance." Mr. Adams 
forthwith set about the pacification, and soon satisfied the simple-hearted old 
man no insult was meant him. To cement the good understanding, Mr. Ad- 
ams promised to appoint his son to a Federal office in Georgia, the governor 
complacently remarking, " My son John is a man about my inches, with the 
advantages of a liberal education, and for his integrity I pledge my head." 
In i8l I Governor Matthews was commissioned by President Madison to com- 
pose some disturbances with a number of men who had thrown off the Spanish 
yoke in Florida. Misunderstanding his instructions, he made a formal treaty 
with them, which Mr. Madison disavowed. Once more in high dudgeon the 
governor set out for the capital to see the president ; but old age, the fatigues 
of his journey, and his terrific state of excitement prostrated him at Augusta, 
where he died in 1812, and is buried in St. Paul's Churchyard. 

In 1 8 14 Joseph Hutchinson served another term as intendant. The bene- 
fits of experience in office were again demonstrated, as in this year we find 
further legislation looking to the improvement of the city, the surveyor-gene- 



Senators from Augusta. 169 

ral being directed to lay off new streets, and remark the lines of old ones, that 
the invariable policy of the city from its foundation, to have its streets wide, 
straight, and regularly built upon, should be maintained. , 

In 181 5 and 18 16 Walter Leigh was intendant. In the earlier portion of 
his administration considerable distress prevailed in mercantile circles. The 
War of 18 1 2 ended suddenly, and many merchants who had laid in stocks at 
the inflated war prices, calicos at one dollar per yard, and salt at three dollars 
per bushel, were ruined. The development of Augusta as a municipality, 
however, kept on. In 1816 a new range of lots on the south side of Walker 
street, and running the entire length of the city was laid out, and the new 
street on which it abutted was called Watkins, after Robert Watkins, an emi- 
nent lawyer of the Augusta bar, and compiler of " Watkins's Digest," the ear- 
liest compilation of Georgia laws. 

In 18 1 7 Freeman Walker was chosen intendant. By act of this year the 
style intendant was changed to mayor, and Major Walker was chosen mayor 
in both 1818 and 18 19. The portrait of this gentleman is to be seen in the 
mayor's office, in the gallery of pictures of the city's chief magistrates for" nearly 
eighty years back, and his handsome, intelligent face and laughing eye bear 
out the tradition of his wit and eloquence. He is said to have been one of the 
mad wags whose pranks are related in the famous " Georgia Scenes," and to 
be the original of Freeman Lazenby in the laughable " Wax Works " sketch. 
He was a lawyer of fine abilities, was distinguished for his eloquence in Con- 
gress, and served in the United States senate from December 8, 18 19, when 
he resigned the mayoralty of Augusta to accept that position, to November 
21, 1 82 1, when he resigned from the senate. Walker county is named after 
him. In 181 8 Augusta was extended from Springfield to Hawks' Gully 

In 1 8 19, 1820, and 1821 Nicholas Ware was mayor. On the resignation 
of Major Walker in 18 19, in order to enter the United States Senate, Mr. 
Ware was chosen to succeed him and served until November 21, 1821, when 
he, in turn, resigned the mayoralty in order to enter the United States Senate, 
it being a curious coincidence that Mr. Ware succeeded Major Walker in both 
the mayoralty and the senate. Mr. Ware served in the senate from Novem- 
ber 10, 182 1, to his death, November 4, 1824. It is not often that any city 
furnishes from its mayoralty two United States senators in succession, but such, 
in this case, is the remarkable record of Augusta. It remains to add that both 
these distinguished citizens had the honor of having counties named after them. 
Ware county, created in 1824, having been named after one, and Walker, organ- 
ized in 1833, after the other. 

During the administrations of Mayors Walker and Ware there was legisla- 
tion of importance to the city. The intendant became the mayor ; the quali- 
fications of voters that they should be freeholders or leaseholders, was re- 
pealed, and it was only required they should have the qualifications requisite 



170 History of Augusta. 



to vote for a membeB of the General Assembly, and have resided twelve months 
in the State and six months in the city preceding the election ; the election of 
mayor was taken from council and given to the people. 

In 1823 Robert Raymond Reid was elected mayor of Augusta and re- 
elected in 1824. Mr. Reid was born in South Carolina in 1789, but early 
removed to Augusta and was admitted to the bar. At the age of twenty- 
seven he was made judge of the Middle Circuit, and then served in Congress 
from 18 18 to 1822. At the close of his last term became mayor ; was then 
reappointed judge of the Middle Circuit; then became judge of the City 
Court of Augusta ; in 1832 was appointed by President Jackson United States 
district judge in Florida; in 1839 was appointed by President Van Buren 
governor of the Territory of Florida, in which office he died in 1841. 

In 1825 and 1826 another celebrated judge, William W. Holt was elected 
mayor of Augusta. For very many years after his mayoralty Judge Holt sat 
on the bench of the Middle Circuit, the very embodiment in learning and 
severity of the old English common law justice. He was deeply learned in his 
profession and strove always to ascertain and apply the law, holding the scales 
of justice inflexibly even. During his mayoralty the famous election excite- 
ment of Troup and the Treaty swept over Augusta, as over the State. The 
casus belli was whether a treaty made by Governor Troup with the Indians, 
touching a cession of Cherokee Georgia, should stand, or give place to one 
negotiated with them by the United States government. Governor Troup and 
General Clark were the opposing candidates for governor. The contest was 
close : Troup, 20.545 ; Clark, 19,362 — Troup's majority, 683 ; and the tem- 
per in which it was conducted may be gathered from a couple of toasts given 
at the time. It was said Governor Troup had Indian blood in his veins, and 
in allusion to this a Clark partisan proposed this sentiment : " General John 
Clark — a former trouble to the Indians, a present trouble to some of their kin- 
dred." Up sprang a " Troup and Treaty " man with the quick rejoinder : 
" George M. Troup — may every hair on his head be a standing army, and 
every soldier be armed with a thundering cannon to drive his enemies to h — 11." 

During Mayor Holt's time LaFayette visited Augusta. After a tour 
through the North, General LaFayette landed at Savannah on March 19, 1825, 
and was met by Governor Troup, who, pursuant to a joint resolution of the 
General Assembly, was there to welcome him as the guest of the State. As 
the general stepped on shore, the governor addressed him as follows : " Wel- 
come, LaFayette. 'Tis little more than ninety years since the founder of this 
State first set foot on the bank on which you stand. Now four hundred thou- 
sand people open their arms to receive you." After the welcome Governor 
Troup accompanied him to Augusta, which he reached a few days after arriv- 
ing in Savannah, and was received with great ceremony. A procession met 
him at the steamboat landing, as follows : "Music; chief marshal and staff; 



Visit of General LaFayette. 171 

committee of arrangements; a marshal; detachment of hussars; General La- 
Fayette in a phaeton drawn by four horses ; son and suite of General LaFay- 
•ette in a barouche drawn by two horses ; troop of hussars ; a marshal ; clergy, 
officers and soldiers of the Revolution ; a marshal ; general officers and staff; 
•citizens in carriages ; a marshal ; citizens on horseback ; a marshal ; music ; 
United States artillery; volunteer battalion ; a marshal; citizens; a marshal." 

The mounted men rode four abreast ; citizens walked six abreast. The 
procession moved from the bridge through Centre street to Greene, and up 
Greene to the city hall, where the visitor was welcomed by the mayor ; thence 
lie was escorted through Washington and Broad streets to the apartments pre- 
pared for him at the Planters' Hotel. As the marquis landed, Colonel William 
•Cumming. chairman of the committee of arrangements, welcomed him. Then 
Mr. DeLaigle, on behalf of the French citizens of Augusta, addressed him in 
French, to which the marquis replied in the same language. A delegation 
from Alabama then invited him to visit that State, and finally the mayor for- 
mally welcomed him to Augusta. The marquis being a Mason, was addressed 
by John W. Wilde, grand commander of Georgia Encampment No. i. A 
banquet followed, at which the distinguished visitor was toasted as follows : 
" The man whose sovereignty is above that of kings — LaFayette, who reigns 
in the hearts of a whole people." Then came a grand ball, after which the 
marquis departed for the State capital. The military companies of Augusta 
at this time were Richmond Hussars, Captain Boisclair; Georgia Fencibles. 
Captain W. W. Holt ; LaFayette Riflemen, Captain Caldwell ; Hamilton Rifle- 
men, Captain Cumming; Irish Volunteers, Captain Cormick, and Georgia 
Blues, Captain McKinne. 

In 1827, in which year the Savannah River was frozen over, Samuel Hale 
•was elected mayor and continued to be re-elected each year till 1837. Mr. 
Hale was a successful merchant*, and his long administration is memorable in 
many ways. Augusta had had two notable industrial epochs before — the rise 
•of the cotton industry about 1800, and the advent of the steamboat in 18 17, 
the Enterprise, of Savannah, coming up the river in that year; and in 1833, 
•during Mayor Hales's time, the railroad put in an appearance. The first one 
constructed in America was the South Carolina road, from Charleston to Ham- 
burg, opposite Augusta. It was begun in 1830, and by July, 1833, was com- 
pleted and in running order. Its stock, which, up to that time, had been a 
■drug in the market, rose to 105. The fare from Hamburg to Charleston, one 
hundred and thirty-six miles, was $6.75, with seventy-five pounds baggage ; 
for less distances, five cents per mile. By November, 1833, the company had 
«ix engines, the " Best Friend," having four wheels and costing $4,000 ; " West 
Point," four wheels, costing $3,250; and the " South Carolina," " Charleston," 
^'Barnwell," and " Edisto," all with eight wheels and costing, the first $5,000 
and the others $5,750 each. 



1/2 History of Augusta. 



The success of this enterprise at once stimulated Augusta. A public meet- 
ing for July 20, 1833, to consider of a railroad from Augusta to Athens, the 
original of the now far-famed Georgia *Railroad, was called by Samuel Hale,. 
W. W. Montgomery, James McLaws, William T. Gould, and J. P. King. At 
the meeting Messrs H. H. Gumming, W. W. Montgomery, James Harper, 
James W. Davies and William C. Micou were appointed a committee to or- 
ganize a company. 

Similar meetings were held in various portions of the State; and, from this 
time out, the railroad became a fixed fact. In 1836 the locomotive whistle was 
invented; in 1839 the South Carolina trains left Hamburg at six A. M. and 
reached Charleston at three P. M. ; rate of speed, fifteen miles per hour; fare, 
$10. The same year the Georgia Railroad only reached from Augusta to 
Greensboro, leaving Augusta at six P. M. and arriving at Greensboro at one 
A. M. ; speed, twelve miles per hour; fare, $4.25. During the same long ad- 
ministration troubles occurred in Florida and Texas, in the former with the 
Seminoles and in the latter with the Mexicans. The president called for thirty- 
five hundred men to march against the Indians, and, as usual, the Augusta 
companies came to the front ; the Richmond Hussars put seventy sabers in the 
field, and the Richmond Blues marched out one hundred and six strong. As 
they marched out Washington street on their way to Savannah the town as- 
sembled to see them off. There were volunteers also for Texas, and when 
at the fall of the Alamo the famous Davy Crockett was slain, the Augusta 
paper gave him a curious and yet touching eulogy, which may here be re- 
produced : 

" Colonel Crockett — all flesh is grass, saith the preacher, and as the flower 
of the field, it passeth away. It is even so. He that came off victorious from 
a hundred contests with the stern chieftains of the forest ; at whose approach 
the bear and panther shook with afright. and the deer and buffalo fled as from 
the messenger of death — the redoubtable Crockett is no more. Fallen is- 
Alamo! Fallen is the hero of Tennessee! The places which have known 
him shall see him no more — the halls which have re-echoed with the thunders 
of his eloquence are silent, and the wildcat and the alligator no longer tremble 
at the sound of his carabine. The victor is overthrown, the champion is dead. 
He has gone ahead of his competitors to that land from whose bourne no trav- 
eler returns. May he rest in peace." 

Under the administration of Mayor Hale a question of jurisdiction which 
had rankled to the injury of the city since 1798 was finally satisfactorily 
adjusted It will be remembered that prior to the grant of the charter the 
municipal government had been in the hands of a board of commissioners who 
were at once trustees of the town and of the academy. When the city council 
was organized to administer the municipal government the trustees of the 
academy still claimed title to all the commons. This the council disputed, and^ 



Recollections of John Phinizy. 173: 

by act of 1835, ^^^ trustees were directed to convey the commons to the city 
on terms agreed on between the two. All that part of the city west of Camp- 
bell street was erected into a new district, or ward, number four; the fire de- 
partment materially strengthened, Augusta having been devastated by a great 
fire in 1829; and the military companies encouraged. It may also be noted 
that during this administration the famous " Georgia Scenes " appeared ; most 
of the sketches being located by Judge Longstreet in and about Augusta. 

In 1837 John Phinizy was elected. This venerable citizen lived to the ad- 
vanced age of ninety- four, and died only a few years since. To the last he re- 
tained his mental faculties unimpaired, and but a short time before his death 
gave some interesting testimony before the United States Senate Committee 
on education and labor, which we here reproduce : 

" I was born in Oglethorpe county, Ga., in 1793, very near the Indian line. 
The country was sparsely settled, and there were almost as many Indians as 
whites. I recollect that the Indian chief used to ride me on his knee. They 
were a very honest and well disposed people ; far more so than the negroes. 
But the white people wanted their lands, and therefore drove them out of the 
country. I came to Augusta in 1800, riding here in a sulky with my father. 
We had no carriages or buggies in those days. I had never seen any la.rge- 
collection of houses, and looked upon Augusta as the biggest place in the 
world. Soon after I came here I was sent to Franklin College, at Athens, Ga,, 
now the State University, and graduated in 181 L I am the only living repre- 
sentative of that class. I cannot give you much positive information about 
the cotton crop in the first part of the century, a'3 I was so young at the time, 
but I recollect that it was not thought much of and very few planted it. About 
1810, I think, I used to see small wagons coming to town with a bale of cotton, 
two or three barrels of flour, and a hogshead of tobacco, revolving on a sort of 
axis, pulled along behind. There was far more tobacco made in this section 
then than cotton. One planter, who made 20,000 pounds of seed cotton, was 
thought to be doing a wonderful thing. The seed was either picked out by 
hand or pushed out by rollers, aud the neighbors used to gather at each other's 
houses to help in getting out tlie seed. I own the place now where Whitney 
made his first experiment with the cotton-gin. He built a dam across a small 
stream and ran the gin by v/ater. The dam is standing to this day, and the 
water of the stream turns an improved gin. Large quantities of tobacco, made 
in the vicinity, were brought to Augusta during the first quarter of the century, 
but it soon gave way to cotton. Now there is no tobacco made about here. 
It was about 181 1 that cotton first began to come into prominence, and its 
cultivation increased very rapidly. In 1818 I had a large cotton warehouse 
myself. A long wooden building, that cost one thousand dollars to build, 
rented for eighteen hundred dollars the first year. Centre street was so packed 
with cotton wagons in i8-i8 that at times it was completely blocked. The 



174 History of Augusta. 



average yield of cotton to the acre at that time was about the same as now, 
but the planters used no fertilizers. Everybody had now learned to make 
cotton and very little else was thought of Property in Augusta, and especially 
near the cotton warehouses, increased rapidly in value. These are about all 
the points I could give you in regard to the early history of cotton in this 
section." 

In 1837 Augusta's cotton receipts were one hundred thousand bales. In 
1838 Mayor Hale served another term, and was succeeded in 1839 ^Y Alfred 
Gumming, afterwards governor of Utah. During Mayor Cumming's term 
Augusta had a severe visitation of yellow fever, there being from fifteen hundred 
to two thousand cases and two hundred and forty deaths. A fuller account 
of this epidemic appears elsewhere in this work. In 1840 Dr. Daniel Hook 
was mayor, and in 1842 served another term. In 1 841, 1843, 1844 and 1845 
Martin M. Dye was mayor. During Mayor Hook's first term Augusta was 
visited with a terrible freshet, the worst then known since the terrible overflow 
of 1796, called the "Yazoo Fresh." On May 28th the Savannah River rose 
thirty- five feet above low water mark. Broad street was from two to ten feet 
deep, and floated forty bale boats. Some one thousand bales of cotton were 
swept away, and between $500,000 and $1,000,000 damage done. A house 
containing^ a woman and her four children was swept away. All perished but 
one little girl. The captain of a Petersburg boat chased the house three miles, 
and finally saved tht child, almost exhausted, but still clinging to her pet dog. 

During Mayor Dye '5 first term the main office of the Georgia Railroad 
Gompany was moved from Athens to Augusta. At this time also was passed 
the famous " Algerine law," as 1^ is termed. This was an act to provide a sort 
of upper house for the city council in the shape of a board of aldermen, two 
from each ward. The sting of the act lay in the fact that no one was eligible 
to be, or to vote for, an alderman unless he owned one thousand dollars' worth 
of real estate or had paid at least twenty-five dollars city tax. In 1842 the 
act was repealed. During Mayor Dye's administration the Augusta Ganal 
was commenced. The first survey was made in the fall of 1844, ^"^ in May, 
1845, the work was begun. The plan of the canal was to be five feet deep, 
twenty feet wide at the bottom and forty feet at the surface of the water. The 
total length was nearly seven miles, and on November 23, 1846, the water was 
let in. Some of the citizens of Augusta resorted to litigation to stop this pub- 
lic work, but the courts decided against them, finding the authority of the city 
council to undertake such enterprises in the chartt^r of the city. At this time 
Augusta had a population of 7,502, and its trade, relatively speaking, was im- 
mense. There were twelve large warehouses capable of containing 70,000 
bales, and three new ones were begun. The wharfage front was 2,500 feet, 
and had cost $150,000. The river and wagon trade was enormous, and, in 
1845, the cotton receipts ran to the unprecedented figure of 212,019 bales. 



First Railroad to Augusta. 175 

The revenue from the bridge the same year was $23,678. The foundations 
of many fortunes were laid at this golden epoch, which is still further memor- 
able as giving the city its first railroad, the Georgia road tapping the city 
in 1845. 

In 1846 and 1847 ^^- Lewis D. Ford, an eminent physician, was mayor of 
Augusta. In his first term the Mexican War broke out. A regiment was 
raised in Georgia, and in this regiment went the Richmond Blues, one hundred 
and five strong, this being the same gallant command as had volunteered in 
the Florida War. The city council gave fifteen dollars per man towards fitting 
out troops. In Dr. Ford's second term, the pioneer of the city's now numerous 
cotton manufactories, " The Augusta Cotton Mills," was organized. The por- 
trait of Dr. Ford is to be found in the mayor's ofiice. He was a man of patri- 
archical appearance, and his heart was kindness itself 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Mayors Garvin, Miller and Dearing — Central Railroad Comes in — Mayor Conley — Mavor 
Blodgett — Augusta Waterworks — The War Opens — Capture of Augusta Arsenal — Geor- 
gia's Wonderful Prosperity in i860 — First Regiment — Augusta's Volunteers — Her Dead — 
Confederate Monuments — Ladies' Memorial Association — The Salt Famine — Speculation 
— Gunpowder Works — Fury and Suffering of the War — Confederate Money — Lee's Sur- 
render — Riot of 1865 — Mayor May — Military Rule — Mayor Gardiner — Military Mayor — 
Reconstruction — Mayor Russell — Mayor Allen — Mayor Estes — Enlargement of Canal — 
Mayor Meyer — Mayor May — Vast Extension of Corporate Limits — Freshet of 1888 — Ex- 
position — Augusta's Double Tax — Retrospect — Proud Record of a Century and a Half 

IN 1848 Dr. Ignatius P. Garvin was elected mayor. He, also, was a physi- 
cian of eminence, was professor in the medical college, and about this time 
edited the Southern Medical atid Surgical Jo?irnal in conjunction with the cel- 
ebrated Dr. Paul F. Eve, who subsequently removed to Nashville, Tenn. In 
1849 James B. Bishop was mayor ; •" 1850 and 185 1, Thomas W. Miller ; and 
in 1852 and 1853, still another physician. Dr. William E. Dearing. This gen- 
tleman was one of the most accomplished herpetologists that ever lived in the 
United States. His knowledge of the nature, habits and species of the serpent 
tribe was wonderfully accurate and extensive, and it is greatly to be regretted, 
in the interests of science, that he did not commit his fund of information in 
this wierd and yet interesting field to book form. 

In 1854 Abner P. Robertson was mayor, and this year is memorable for a 
yellow fever epidemic, of which we speak more at large elsewhere in this 
work, and for the tapping of the city by the Augusta and Savannah Railroad^ 



176 History of Augusta. 



now known more generally by the name of its lessor, the Central. In this 
year also the city limits were extended so as to take in that extensive tract 
lying east of the Carnes road and north of South Boundary; and the city 
council had a controversy with the South Carolina authorities in reference to a 
claim by certain grantees of that State to collect tolls on the Carolina side, 
which was decided in favor of the city. 

In 1855 Dr. Bearing served another term as mayor, and in 1856 General 
George W. Evans was elected. 

From 1856 to 1858 Benjamin Conley was mayor. Mr. Conley was a suc- 
cessful merchant of Augusta, and, after the war, was for a short time governor 
of Georgia. During Mayor Conley's first term the registration of voters for 
municipal elections became the law. 

In 1859 and i860 Foster Blodgett was mayor. His administration is sig- 
nalized by the introduction of the waterworks system. As far back as 1818 the 
waters of Turknett Springs had been used. Mayor Hale, among his other 
public services, had much enlarged and improved that system, and from him 
the city bought it; but, with the development of the municipalty, other re- 
sources became necessary and these Mayor Blodgett supplied. Since his ad- 
ministration, and notably since the enlargement of the canal, the water supply 
of Augusta has been largely increased. The source of supply is the Savannah 
River It is a tradition that " the man who once drinks the water of this river 
is certain to return to it," and the purity of the element, as shown by an analy- 
sis made by Dr. Joseph Jones, an eminent chemist, may be one reason for the 
old saw. The analysis is as follows : 

Solid matters 4.2936 

Carbonate of lime 0.7544 

Carbonate of magnesia 0.0250 

Sulphate of lime slight trace 

Chloride of Calcium slight trace 

Chloride of magnesium slight trace 

Phosphate of lime . slight trace 

Chloride of sodium 0.0436 

Sulphate of soda and potassa 0.0489 

Silicic acid, silicate of alumnia, silicate of potassa, 
silicate of soda, together with a small proportion of 
organic matter and traces of ammonia 3. 12 10 

Purity of water is not the only requisite of a water supply. Quantity 
available is an important consideration, and in this too Augusta is in the front 
rank, comparing favorably not only with other Georgia cities but with most 
cities of the entire country. Before the river water is pumped through the 
city it goes from the canal into large settling basins covering acres of ground, 
where all suspended matters settle to the bottom, and it is furnished clear and 
free from impurities. The waterworks pumps have a capacity of 8,000,000 
gallons per day, if such a mammoth supply should be needed. The daily 



Opening of the War 

177 



1,041,113 gallons to a population which she claims is nearlv Hn„M. ,t . r 
Augusta, and Charleston furnishes but 600,000 gallons '^ " °' 

In .861 the great drama of the war opened. On the ,9th of January ,86r 
the n ^' Convention adopted an ordinance of secession, and on the Ith 
the United S ates arsenal at Augusta was surrendered to the State troops 

ff tie n't f f ''""^^ °' *"^*"^"" °f---- C^'P'-n Arnold Firr; 

a s :, andl ^TT""'' ""* ' '°"^ °' ^'^"'^ "-• '^ stationed a the 
o theL t " r'"^' °' *^ "*"™^' 'he usual military rout ne 

of the post was continued. The sentry paced his round, and the Starrld 
Stnpes were regularly hoisted at sunrise to flutter in the breeze ah dtr Thk 
was too much for the excited mind of the day. Had not G o^gi Leeded 
and resumed her sovereignty ; and why then were another unifL and flal 
o be seen upon her soil ? On the ..d of January Governor Brown arrivd 
n Augusta with a staff officer and on the next day the following commun ica 
tion was sent to the Federal commandant : ^ communica- 

,. ^ . . " Augusta, Ga., January 23. 1861 

" Captam Arnold Elzev n 9 A r j- a / j, looi, 

..(;,„ T ^' ' Commanding Augusta Arsenal ■ 

that r r ■"'"■"""'' ''^ ^'' E=<cellency Governor Brown, to say to you 

tha Georgia having seceded from the United States of Americ;, and resumed 
exclusive sovereignty over her soil, it has become his duty to equte yorto 

:^z^:7^^:r' ~' -^ '^^ -^"- --^-^^^: 

" He proposes to take possession of the arsenal, and to receipt for all oublic 
property under your charge, which will hereafter be accounted o on adius 
ment between the State of Georgia and the United States of Africa 'h; 
begs to refer to the fact that the retention of foreign troops upon he soil of 
Georgia, after remonstrance, is under the laws of nations an act of host^L 

most a Z 1 ''' ^'^'^ '' "°^ °"'>^ ^^ P^^-' ^"^ --OUS to cul L tL 
most amicable relations with the United States government I amT'^h 
instructed to say that an answer will be expected to Z.T 
o'rIorV T ■ expected to-morrow mornmg, at nine 

o clock. I am. sir, very respectfully, 

" Your obedient servant, 

" Henry R. Jackson. 

" Aid-de-camp, &c." 

to VVaThTn"toI"rec?'""' 7 t' T ''' ''''"'' '"^ te^.g.,pi,,i the situation 
CO Washington, receiving at midnight the following reply : 

"Washington, January 23, iS6r. 
Captain Elzey, Second Artillery, commanding Augusta Arsenal, Ga. : 

States an a^t°tT°% fi" ''"' ^''"'"'^ '^''"'' ^""^ P°^' ^"d 'he United 

States an attitude of war. His summons is harsh and peremptory. It is not 



178 History of Augusta. 



expected that your defense should be desperate. If forced to surrender by 
violence or starvation, you will stipulate for honorable terms, and a free pass- 
age by water with your company to New York. 

" T. Holt, Secretary of War." 

On the refusal of Captain Elzey to surrender the arsenal Governor Brown 
had ordered out the troops about the city, and 800 were soon in line, but after 
the letter written giving the captain till next day to reply, the volunteers 
were dismissed till 9 A. M. on the 24th. At that time they re-assembled when 
the following communication came in : 

" Headquarters, Augusta Arsenal, 

" Georgia, January 24, 1861. 
" Sir — I have the honor to inform you that I am directed by Captain Elzey, 
commanding this post, to say, in reply to the demand of the governor of the 
State of Georgia, made through you yesterday, requiring him to withdraw 
his command beyond the limits of the State: he begs to request an interview 
with his excellency, the governor, for the purpose of negotiating honorable 
terms of surrender at as early an hour this morning as practicable. I have the 
honor to be, very respectfully, 

" Your Obedient Servant, 

"J. C. Jones, Lieut. 2d Art, Adj. 

"To Col. H. R. Jackson, Aid-de-camp." 

Governor Brown and his staff, Colonel H, R. Jackson, Colonel William 
Phillips, Lieutenant-Colonel M. C. Fulton. Lieutenant-Colonel C. V. Walker, 
and Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Cleveland, rode out to the arsenal, and the 
following terms of surrender were agreed on: the United States flag to be 
lowered and saluted ; the company to march out with military honors ; a 
receipt to be i^iven for the public property, with a view to future adjustment ; 
and the company to retain its arms and property, to stay in its quarters till 
removal from the State, and to have passage to New York from Savannah. 
After these terms had been agreed on, Colonel William Henry Walker crossed 
the room to where Captain Elzey was standing and assured him he had done 
all a brave officer could have done. A silent pressure of the hand was the 
reply. The two officers had been classmates at West Point. Colonel Walker 
afterwards became a major-general in the Confederate service ; was repeatedly 
desperately wounded and was finally killed in the battles around Atlanta. 
The preliminaries being settled, the garrison was drawn out and a salute fired 
from four field pieces to the United States flag. Thirty-three guns were fired, 
one for each State, including Georgia, and between the thirty-second and 
thirty-third discharge the flag descended from the staff. At three o'clock 
Brigadier- General Harris, with a detachment of the Washington Artillery and 



The War Period. 

179 



Oglethorpe Infantry, took possession of the arsenal and raised the then State 

cele°r Z7l"' ' P-T'''^''""^'' "'"' ' '"Se. red five pointed star in the 
center. Salutes were hred vv.th two guns belonging to the Washington Artil- 
le y : one or the sovereignty of Georgia ; five for the seceded states • and 
fifteen for the prospective Southern Confederacy. ' 

At the time the war opened, Georgia was developing enormously in wealth 

was *672.322,777, showing the stupendous increase of $176 8 in,, The 
first year the increase was $33,600,000; the next, $4l,ooo,o<;o ; then $70- 
000,000; and then $6..ooo,ooo. The value of slave property in i860 being 
$302,694,855, left .he value of other property $369,637.922 ; and deducting 
the slave mcrease. $92,260,2.,, from the total gain, shows that property other 
than slave had mcreased in the four years just prior ,0 the war, from $285 - 
076,6,0 to $369,627,922. a gain in four years of $84,55 ..3.2. Land had in- 
creased $30,000,000; c„y property, $9,000,0000; money, $30,000,000 This 
golden prosperity was sacrificed on the altar of war 

A regiment was soon called for to go to Pensacola, and two hundred and 
fifty companies volunteered their services. The State was wild with military 
ardor, and Augusta, as in times past, stood out among the foremost Of the 
ourteen companies selected, Augusta furnished two. the Oglethorpe Light In- 
fantry Captain Clarke, and the Walker Light Infantry. Captain Camp The 
?/!/ H r 7 —'-'y through Augusta; the sound of marching 

feet and the sharp command of the drill officers were heard everywhere 
From April ist to July ,, ,86,, Augusta had sent forward eleven companies' 
LlTTh 'f^^='"'^°f*^ «-' Manassas, which exalted the spirits of the 

fead „; e H f "' '"'"• 7""' """ ''''''" ^"^''^'^ "'" "'g'" -" th- 
read in the heater, a scene of indescribable excitement ensued Men cheered 

hemselves hoarse; ladies fainted ; yells of triumph and frantic inquiries for 

Irdo of?h > rVV^' ''"'= """= ' ""'"'"'"e "P--. The military 
ardor of the cty already fervent, was stimulated to white heat. Other compa- 
nies were hurried forward, and by July 1, ,862, Augusta and Richmond county 
had twemy.four companies, or over two lull regiments in the field The 
commands were Oglethorpe Infantry, Company A, 69 men ; Company B, 66 ■ 
Walker L'ght Infantry, 60; Blodgett Volunteers, 95; Confederate Ugh 
Guards, 76; Clinch Rifles, 94; Irish Volunteers. 80; Letcher Guards. 80; fn- 
dependent Blues. 54; Montgomery Guards. „ : Georgia Light Guards 94- 
Wilson Tigers. „6; Richmond Hussars. Company A, 86 ; Company B 90 

eTs Ni bTv r '■ 'tr °'"^ ''"^'^'^"■^' ^^'^''^y '^"'«- C-"ford Rang, 
ers N sbet Volunteers, Vigilant Rifles, Richmond Rough and Readys, Bak^r 

Volunteers, Augusta Rangers and Milledge Artillery. Some six other com- 
panies were organized and sent forward. Out of a white population of ,0 - 
000 over 2,000 soldiers were raised ; and of these 292 were killed or died in 



i8o History of Augusta. 



the service. The streets were crowded and depots thronged with commands 
from other parts of the State and from Florida, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas 
and Mississippi luirrying to the front. Soon train loads of sick and wounded 
came back. Augusta became a great hospital center. Wayside homes were 
established for the disabled soldiers, and the ladies of the city strained every 
nerve to fit out the volunteer on his way to the front and nurse the wounded 
who returned. 

The legislature of the State " Resolved, That the thanks of the General As- 
sembly of the State of Georgia are due, and are hereby tendered to the ladies 
of the whole State, for their active, untiring and successful efforts to aid in 
clothing and making comfortable our soldiers in the field, and for their zeal and 
devotion in ministering to the wants of the sick and wounded, by which they 
have demonstrated that God's last, best gift is woman, and by which they 
prove, too, that they merit the Bible appellation of 'blessed.' " — " Georgia Laws, 
1862," page 107. 

This care ceased not with the war. When the struggle was over a Ladies' 
Memorial Association was formed which erected in Broad street the Confeder- 
ate Monument, one of the handsomest war memorials in the country. It is 
seventy-two feet high, and from the top of the second section, twenty-five feet 
from the base, rises a simple, unbroken shaft forty-seven feet, presenting a 
singularly graceful and dignified aspect. At the tour angles of the first sec- 
tion are placed statues of Generals Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Thomas 
R. R. Cobb and William Henry Walker ; the first two typifying the Confed- 
eracy, the third the State of Georgia, and the fourth Richmond county. 
On the North side of the monument is the inscription : 

"No NATION ROSE SO WHITE AND FAIR, 

None fell so pure of crime." 
On the South side : 

" Worthy 

To HAVE lived and KNOWN 

Our gratiiude : 
Worthy 
To he hallowed and held 
In tender remembrance. 

Worthy 

The fadeless fame which 

Confedkrai'e soldiers 

Won, 

Who liAVK themselves in life 

and death for us: 

For the honor of Georgia, 

For the rights of the States, 

For the liberties of the people, 

For the sentiments of the South, 

■\^ F"oR the principles of the Union, , 

As THESE WERE HANDED DOWN TO THEM, 
By THE FATHERS OF OUR COMMON COUNTRY." 



The Confederate Monument. i8i 

On the East side : 

" Confederate Dead." 

And on the West side : 

"Erected A. D. 1878, 

By the Memorial Association of Augusta, 

In honor of the 

Men of Richmond County, 

Who died 

In the cause of the Confederate States." 

On the pinnacle of the shaft is a statue, heroic size, of a Confederate pri- 
vate soldier. He is standing at ease, leaning on his musket, and gazing in- 
tently out in front of him, as if waiting the command to move forward into 
action. 

The base of the monument is of granite, the shaft and statues of pure Ital- 
ian marble. The work was executed in Carrara, Italy, and in its design, exe- 
cution, and general appearance the monument is deservedly the subject of 
general admiration. It was erected by the Ladies' Memorial Association, at a 
cost of $17,331 35 ; and was unveiled on October 31, 1878, amid imposing 
ceremonies. The governor of the State, Hon. Alfred H. Colquitt, the hero of 
Olustee, and the widow of Stonewall Jackson, honored the occasion with their 
presence. The volunteer battalion, headed by the band of the Thirteenth 
United States Infantry, and a large number of cavalry commands, escorted 
the Confederate survivors, and about the platform hung the scarred and 
smoke- begrimed battle flags of the Stonewall Brigade, Cobb Legion, Washing- 
ton Artillery, Fifth Georgia, Eighth Georgia, and Fifth and Twenty-seventh 
Virginia Infantry, as also the Confederate flag which was in the hands of Gen- 
eral Bartow when he fell at the first battle of Manassas. The oration was de- 
livered by Colonel C. C. Jones. 

This beautiful monument is the result of untiring efforts on the part of the 
Ladies' Memorial Association. The original of this society was the Ladies' 
Relief and Hospital Association, organized during the war for the benefit of the 
sick and wounded soldiery. When the war ended and the hospitals were closed, 
the association took upon itself the duty of annually decorating the soldiers' 
graves in the city cemetery with flowers on the 26th of April, the anniversary 
of General Lee's surrender at Appomattox. In 1868 it was proposed to form 
a society for the purpose of taking care of those graves, and also of erecting a 
Confederate monument, and the Ladies' Memorial Association was organized 
with Mrs. Dr. John Carter, as president; Mrs. Dr. H. H. Steiner, as vice-presi- 
dent, and Mrs. John T. Miller, as secretary and treasurer. The financial de- 
pression following the war and the death of both president and vice-president 
prevented the association from doing more than taking care of the soldiers' 
graves, but in 1873 a reorganization was effected, and the following officers 
elected: President, Mrs. M. E. Walton (now Mrs. F. A. Timberlake); vice-pres- 



1 82 History of Augusta. 

idents, Mrs. J. M. Adams, Mrs. John M. Clarke, Mrs. J. J. Cohen, Mrs. J. T. 
Derry, Mrs. A. E. Dortic, Mrs. DeSaussure Ford, Mrs. H. W. Milliard, Mrs. 
J. L. Lamar and Mrs. M. E. Whitehead ; and secretary and treasurer, Mrs. 
John T. Miller. The association proceeded systematically to work. The Con- 
federate dead were gathered into the soldiers' section of the cemetery, which 
was enclosed with a substantial stone coping. A fountain was placed in the 
center, and at each of the five hundred and forty graves a marble headstone. 
The cost of the work was $2,606 46 ; and when accomplished, the association 
turned its attention to the erection of a monument, with the result above stated. 

In front of St. James Methodist Episcopal Church on Greene street, is 
another Confederate monument, erected in 1873, by the Sunday-school of that 
church, in memory of the twenty-three teachers and scholars who fell in the 
war. This monument is a very handsome cenotaph of white marble, and bears 
on it the names of two hundred and ninety-two slain Confederates. The cen- 
otaph cost $5,400, and was unveiled on December 31, 1873. 

A third Confederate monument is the huge chimney of the Confederate 
powder works on the canal. The works have been long taken down, but the 
chimney was preserved and still towers above the great factories which now 
surround it, while a marble tablet let into its side tells what it was and why it 
is preserved. 

The vigorous blockade of the Southern ports by the United States navy 
was soon felt in the home life of the Confederacy and especially in the cities,, 
always dependent on outside sources for supply. That prime necessary, salt, 
became almost unattainable. What would now be called salt "corners" and 
"syndicates" were formed by speculators. The price of the commodity rose 
enormously. The Legislature at once intervened, and at first tried to stimu- 
late production by a system of bounties, offering a loan of $50,000, without 
interest, and repayable only on the restoration of peace, "to any company or 
corporation, which has been or may hereafter be established in this State for 
the manufacture of salt." This failing to meet expectations, the sum of 
$500,000 was appropriated for the purchase of salt for distribution among the 
people, and to enable the State to enter on the production of the article. 
Much other legislation was had to benefit the soldiers and protect the people 
from monopoly and speculation. No judgment was to be enforced against a 
soldier until three months after his discharge : the statute of limitations was 
suspended ; it was made a crime to purchase clothing, shoes, leather, cloth, 
provisions, wheat, corn, flour, corn meal, meat, bacon, hogs, cattle, salt, bagging, 
twine, rope, or other articles of general use under false pretense that they were 
for the army; or to monopolize or charge extortionate prices for such articles; 
it was forbidden to raise more than three acres of cotton to the hand; it was 
also forbidden to make any spirituous or malt liquor out of corn, wheat, rye, or 
other grain, except for medicinal, hospital, chemical, or mechanical purposes;. 



War-time Legislation. 183 

and by subsequent legislation this inhibition was extended to sugar, molasses, 
syrup, sugar cane, honey, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, peas, Irish potatoes, or 
dried fruit, the penalty being a fine of from $500 to $5,000 and twelve months 
imprisonment. The sum of $400,000 was appropriated for the Georgia 
Relief and Hospital Association in providing medical attendance, hospital 
rooms, stores, supplies, accommodation and transportation for the sick and 
wounded, suffering and destitute soldiers of the State of Georgia; in estab- 
lishing wayside homes for the same ; and in collecting claims of Georgia sol- 
diers or their estates. To provide clothes, shoes, hats, and blankets $1,500,000 
were appropriated. At one time 97,000 bushels of corn were distributed in 
fifteen of the most needy counties to the families of living or deceased soldiers; 
at another, and later period when the general distress became appalling, 
$6,500,000 were voted to indigent families of the soldiers, " the term indigent 
to include wives, mothers, grandmothers, and all those who have to leave their 
ordinary business in the house, and to labor in the field to support themselves 
and children." The enormous prices of articles in general use may be seen when 
it is known that yarn was eight dollars per bunch ; and the State was thought 
to be conferring a great favor in selling it at six dollars. The municipal 
authorities of Augusta strained every nerve to co-operate with the State. 
They issued $50,000 in bonds for a gunboat, and. it may be here added, paid 
every dollar after the war, over the objection of the military authorities that such 
debt being in aid af rebellion was noL enforceable. They obtained permission 
to issue $100,000 in change notes in denominations of five, ten, twenty-five, 
and fifty cents and one dollar. The city became a hive of industry in making 
shoes, clothing, wagons, and other supplies. Its moneyed men started a new 
bank called the Traders and Importers Bank, two insurance companies. The 
Augusta Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and The Commercial Insurance 
Company of Augusta ; a gold mining company The Augusta and Dahlonega 
Mining Company ; and projected a new railroad. The Columbia and Augusta 
Railroad Company. The State ceded the Augusta arsenal and all the realty of 
the United States at Augusta to the Confederate government, and under the su- 
perintendency of Colonel Rains, a huge powder manufactory was erected on the 
Augusta Canal. This is said to have been the largest and most complete 
establishment of its kind in the world, and turned out a powder of most excel- 
lent quality, supplying the armies with abundant ammunition. The chimney 
of these works still stands on the bank of the canal, a towering monument 
of the past. The pressure and agony of the times were something appalling. 
The State had its entire arms-bearing population in the field. There were 
■84, 119 "war indigents" at home; 45,718 children, 22,637 P^°^ kinswomen 
of soldiers, 8,462 orphans, 4,003 widows, in the first two years of the war. 
The papers were full of reports of battles, lists of killed and wounded, calls for 
troops, appeals for food, clothing and shoes, proclamations doling out salt by 



i84 



History of Augusta. 



the peck, impressment orders for negroes to work on fortifications, piteous sup- 
plications for hospital funds. It was a fearful and dreadful time. The soldier 
dead of the State, up to the close of the year 1863, numbered 57,905. The 
white polls had fallen from 52,764 to 39,863, showing war's ravages. The 
war indigents rose from 84,119 to 117,889. Confederate money had gone 
down, down until almost as worthless as the old Continental currency. June 
15, 1862, it took $2 to buy $i in gold ; on June 15, 1863, $7-50; on June 15, 
1864, $18; on January i, 1865, it was $60 for one; April 26, $200 for one, 
April 27, $300, April 28, $500, April 30, $i,OQO. In 1864 hats were worth 
hundreds of dollars; a horse, thousands; a drink of whisky, $10; a pair of 
suspenders, $150; a cake of toilet soap, $25. 

As of historic interest we here give the fluctuations of Confederate money 
as kept by Mr. J. C. Barber, a broker of Augusta, commonly known as Bar- 
ber's tables, which have been recognized as correct in the courts of Georgia. 



1 861, Gold premium. 

January i, $ .05 

July 1 10 

October i 12 

October 15 15 

December i, 20 

December 15 30 

1862. 

January i, 20 

January 15 20 

February i 25 

February 15 40 

March i , 50 

March 15 60 

April 1 75 

April 15 ^ , .85 

May 1 90 

May 15 95 

June 1 95 

For$i in Gold. 

June 15 ,$2.00 

August I , : 2.20 

September 1 2.50 

November i 3.00 

1863. 

February i , 3.10 

March i 3.25 

March 15, 5.00 

May 15 6.00 

June I, 6.50 

June 15 7.50 

July 1 8.00 

July 15 10.00 



August I, 14.00 

August 15 1 5.00 

September i, 14.00 

September 15, 14.00 

October I, 13.00 

October 15 12.50 

November i 13.00 

November 15 1 5.00 

December i 20.05 

December 15 21.00 

1864. 

January i, $ 21.00 

January 15 20.00 

February i , 20.00 

February 15, 21 .00 

March i 26.00 

March 15 20.00 

April 1 19.00 

April 15 21.00 

May I , 20.00 

May 15, 18.00 

June 1-15 18.00 

July 1 5 — August 15, 20.00 

August 15 22.00 

September i 20.50 

September 15 22. 50 

October i 27.00 

October 15, 25.00 

November i 26.00 

November 15 28.00 

December i 32.00 

December 15 35-00 

December 31, 50.00 



The Close of the War. jg^ 



'865. For $1 in Gold. 

January r 6000 

January 15 5^00 

February i ^000 

February 15 4600 

March 1 5500 

March 15, ; 5700 

April 1 70.00 



AP"' '5 80.00 

AP"'2o, ^^^^ 

AP''''26, 200.00 

AP'-'l^? 300.00 

AP"'28 50000 

AP'''l29 Soo.oo 

AP'-'lSo i.ooo.oo 

May 1 1,200.00 



When Sherman swun,s: loose from Atlanta and started on his way through 
Georgia to the sea, it was apprehended that Augusta would see what it had 
not yet witnessed, amid all the other agonies of war, a hostile force in her 
streets; but the storm passed by. A marauding party of Federal cavalry 
would no doubt have swept through the city, but was met by General 
Wheeler and driven back upon the main body. In anticipation of the entrance 
of Sherman's troops immense quantites of cotton were brought out and piled 
in the street. On Broad street, from Jackson to Mcintosh was a solid wall 
about five or six bales high and covering the bulk of that unusually wide thor- 
oughfare. It lay there exposed to the elements, eaten into by the cows spat 
tered with mud, so valuable and yet so worthless ! The chances of its ever 
being made available were considered so hopeless that thousands of bales were 
offered at one dollar per bale in gold, with few takers. When it seemed as if 
nothing could avert the advent of the enemy the Confederate commandant 
issued orders to have it burned on their approach. The execution of this com- 
mand would have almost necessarily involved the destruction of the city and 
fully alive to this awful peril Hon. Robert H. May, then mayor, used Jvery 
exertion to have the order rescinded and by extraordinary exertions finally 
prevailed. At the same time and from the same idle policy of destruction 
barrels of tar and heaps of combustibles were placed on the city brid-e to* 
reduce that, too, to ashes, but here again the danger was averted As"" has 
been said, Augusta had the largest powder mills in America under the aus- 
pices of the Confederate government. Besides these, machine shops and -un 
factories belonging to the government were located, and the city was one of 
the most important posts in the Southern States during the civil struggle. It 
was for this reason that it was considered by Edwin M. Stanton, LincoL's war 
secretary, to have been a vital point in the seceding states, and he was horri- 
fied to find that General Sherman, instead of destroying the great manufact- 
uring plant in Augusta, turned off and pursued an empty and vainglorious 
march to the sea. So long as Augusta remained intact, the army in Northern 
Virginia, under General Lee, was furnished with ammunition and materials 
from the government workshops, and the Southern armies were enabled to 
hold their ground, and it was believed that had Sherman made Au-usta the 
base of his operations instead of Atlanta, the civil war would have come to an 
end at least a year before it did. 



24 



1 86 History of Augusta. 



It is a current belief in the city that Sherman turned his course aside be- 
cause in his early days he was stationed at the Augusta arsenal and had a child 
buried there, and while it is not likely sentiment controlled him, we give the 
story for what it is worth. 

One day in April, 1865, a disarmed and footsore soldier of Lee's army 
reached town. There could now no longer be any doubt that the valiant army 
of northern Virginia had at last succumbed. A mob gathered, intent on sacking 
the Confederate quartermaster and commissary departments. It was argued 
that as the Confederacy was gone, its few remaining assets had better fall into 
the hands of its own poor than go to the enemy, and acting on this belief the 
mob soon " looted " the government repositories. Then, as mobs will, other 
places in no way connected with the government were marked for plunder. 
It was proposed to sack the factories, and some private stores were broken into. 
A guard of citizens and returned soldiers was hastily assembled, and after a 
collision in which one life was lost, the mob dispersed and order was restored. 

Soon after the Federal forces entered the city, a detachment being sent up 
from Savannah, and the city was placed under the rule of a provost marshal. 
None could walk the streets at night without a pass. Then the Freedmen's 
Bureau was established, and the colored population recognized that they were 
free. To their credit, it is to be said, they made no disorder and attempted 
no violence. Mr. Davis, president of the Confederacy, was brought captive 
through the streets of Augusts on his way to Fortress Monroe. He rode in a 
carrriage surrounded by a strong guard of cavalry and was carried up Broad 
street to the headquarters of the post commandant. The military authorities 
insisted on all civilians taking the oath of allegiance, and no one, not even the 
ladies, were allowed to receive letters without doing so. Owing to the lack of 
other clothes the returned soldiers were allowed to wear their uniforms, but 
the military buttons were ordered cut ofif. All arms were ordered delivered 
up, and the press was put under surveillance. Each editorial was required to 
be submitted to the post-commandant, and for one fiery article the office of the 
Augusta Constitutionalist was closed and a sentry put in the composing room. 

Finally order began to evolve out of chaos. The State government was 
reorganized on the plan of reconstruction, devised by President Johnson. Hon. 
James Johnson, a lawyer of Columbus, was appointed provisional governor, and 
a convention ordered at Milledgeville on October 25, 1865. Charles J. Jen- 
kins, John P. King, and A. C. Walter were sent as delegates from Richmond. 
Hon. Herschel V. Johnson was elected president of the convention, which, 
under instructions from Washington, repealed the ordinance of secession and 
repudiated the State's war debt. It adopted a new constitution which recog- 
nized the abolition of slavery, and provided for the organization of a State gov- 
ernment thereunder ; made provision for the support of the poor of the State, 
and appealed to President Johnson for clemency to President Jefferson Davis, 



Reconstruction Period. i8^ 

Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, and other Confederates then prisoners 
at Fort Pulaski. On the reorganization Hon. C. J. Jenkins was elected gov- 
ernor, and the State government was completed in all its parts. 

During the war Hon. Robert H. May, the present chief magistrate of the 
city, was mayor of Augusta. As has been stated the tread of hostile forces 
never resounded in the streets of the city, but all during the war thousands and 
tens of thousands of Confederate soldiers marched through going to battle ; 
trains upon trains of sick and wounded were brought back. The maimed and 
disabled were to be nursed, the dead to be buried, the impoverished to be fed, 
the unruly to be kept in order. Time after time, as the city was menaced, al- 
most every available man was marched out to assist the regular forces, and 
women and children were left behind almost defenseless, but in every exig- 
ency Mayor May was found adequate to the occasion. At one time, when 
the Confederate forces were about to burn the cotton piled five bales high on 
the streets, which would have been to destroy the city, Mr. May averted the 
useless and appalling destruction. When, in 1865, a terrific freshet flooded the 
■city, he quickly repaired its damage; and when later in the year, at the down- 
fall of the Confederacy, a mob sacked the Confederate commissary and quar- 
termaster departments and seemed ripe for further pillage, the mayor's firm 
hand and active measures restored order and obedience to law. 

In 1866 James T. Gardiner served a portion of the year; and John Foster 
filled out his term. 

In the spring of the next year the scheme of congressional reconstruction 
of the South was initiated. Major-General John Pope overturned civil rule 
and established military domination, and for the first and only time in its ex- 
tended municipal history Augusta saw its mayor designated by the sword. 
Foster Blodgett was made mayor by General Pope in May, 1867, and acted as 
such till December, 1868, when reconstruction was completed, and an election 
held at which Henry F. Russell, a prominent merchant, was chosen mayor. 
Mayor Russell was succeeded in 1869 by J. V. H. Allen, who reorganized the 
police force of the city on a military footing, the men being uniformed, and 
armed and drilled as infantry. This discipline has since been maintained and 
the force of the city is not only available for the ordinary duties of police, but, 
at a moment's notice, becomes the drilled and organized nucleus of a military 
body. In this year another railroad, the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta 
entered the city. 

In 1870 Charles Estes became mayor and was re-elected year after year 
till 1876. During Mayor Estes' extended administration, the city was rapidly 
rehabitated and materially enlarged and improved. In 1870 the area inclosed 
by the Savannah Road, the Turknett Springs Road, Carnes Road, and South 
Boundary street was added to the city, and the street railway system put upon 
a permanent basis. In 1871 the Legislature authorized the enlargment of the 



1 88 History of Augusta. 



Augusta Canal. Mayor Allen had urged such an enlargment, but it was re- 
served for Mayor Estes to beghi and complete the work. The work was com- 
menced in March, 1 872, and completed in July, 1 875, at a cost of $972,883. i 5 . 
The present length of the main canal is seven miles; including second and 
third levels, nine miles. The minimum water way is 150 at surface, 106 feet 
at bottom, and li feet deep, making an area of cross section of 1,408 square 
feet. The area of the supply openings is 1,463 square feet ; and, by means of 
a colossal dam the entire waters of the Savannah River are made available. 
There is a bottom grade of descent on the main canal of one hundredth of a 
foot in one hundred feet, giving a theoretical mean velocity of two and seventy- 
four one hundredth feet per second, or a mechanical effect of 14,000 horse 
power, the old capacity being but 600. The result of the enlargement has 
been to give an immense impetus to cotton manufacturing in Augusta, to 
largely stimulate other industries, and to add wonderfully to the wealth and 
population of the city. In 1873 the Macon and Augusta, and the Port Royal, 
and Augusta Railways tapped the city. During this administration the re- 
quirement of a registry fee as a condition precedent to voting in municipal 
elections was abrogated ; the lien for city taxes was made second in dignity 
only to State and county taxes; and the style " marshal " was changed to 
chief of police. Provision was also made for extension and improvement of 
the waterworks system. 

In 1876 the mayor's term was extended from one year to three years, and 
in this year John U. Meyer was elected for that term. During his time a 
board of health was created which is still in operation and has accomplished 
valuable results. Of its operations we speak elsewhere in detail. 

In 1879 Hon. Robert H. May, the war mayor of Augusta, was again elected 
and has been continuously re-elected at each recurring triennial election ever 
since. In 1877 Mr. May was one of the delegates sent from Richmond county 
to the State convention which framed the present constitution of Georgia. 
This instrument has many important provisions looking to the improvement 
of the science of municipal government, and from his long experience in this 
field, Mr. May's counsels were of great service to the convention. During his 
administration from 1879 Augusta has almo.st became a new city. The devel- 
opment of business and increase of population have been unprecedented. 
Among other important matters of legislation in this time it may be mentioned 
that a board of police commissioners was organized, and the limits of the city 
were very largely extended in 1882 so as to take in that extensive territory on 
the west of the city, north of the Turknett Springs road to the line of the vil- 
lage of Summerville, thence along that line across the head of Lake Olmstead,. 
to the head of the canal, so as to throw the entire length of that great work 
within the municipal limits; and again, in 1883, so as to include the territory 
lying south of the Turknett Springs road to the Milledgville road, and thence 



Freshet of 1888. iSg* 



east to the line of the Central Railroad. These additions bring in an immense 
area on the west and southwest of the city, and where fields lately waved in 
grain, streets run and houses glow with life. In Augusta, as elsewhere, "west- 
ward the star of empire takes its way." 

In September, 1888, Augusta was visited with the worst freshet known in 
her history. During the latter part of August and the early part bf Septem- 
ber heavy rains, extending above the city for many miles, almost incessantly 
prevailed. On Sunday, September 9th, the Savannah River began to rise, but 
as this was not unexpected, no particular attention was aroused. All Sunday 
night the rise continued, and by the morning of the loth it became apparent 
that a freshet of unprecedented magnitude was imminent. All that day and 
until late at night the water rose. About one P. M. the canal banks gave way, 
precipitating that immense volume suddenly upon the already submerged city. 
Finally, not a foot of dry land remained, the water obtaining a depth of from 
two to five and in some places six feet throughout the city. All night long 
the angry rush of the waters was heard, hurrying past the very thresholds of 
the astonished and alarmed citizens. About three o'clock on the morning of 
Tuesday, September 11, the water came to a stand and then began to fall, at 
first very slowly, an inch or so an hour, then more and more rapidly, until on 
Wednesday morning the I2th, the land again appeared. But the city looked 
as if built in the bed of a river. Huge holes, especially at street corners, made 
travel impossible for vehicles and difficult for pedestrians. Some ten persons 
were drowned, and the damage done to property is estimated at about two 
millions of dollars. The city was just about completing arrangements for a 
grand exposition, intended to display Augusta's many natural and industrial 
advantages and in particular her vast water power and flourishing manufactur- 
ing interests. In a moment, as it were, the water power was wrecked, the 
huge cotton mills silenced, and a busy, hopeful, ambitious city crushed prone 
to the earth. But in less than forty-eight liours a programme was devised 
which met instant popular acceptance. There was to be no call for outside aid ; 
the city was to bear its own burden ; the exposition was to proceed ; the canal 
was to be rebuilt; the mills were to be run at the earliest possible moment; 
and the citizens were to impose on themselves an extra tax, which with the 
ordinary rate then already levied, made a total of three years' taxes in one. 
This tax was unflinchingly voted ; the exposition was held; the canal repaired ; 
and on December 26 the mill wheels began to revolve, and the looms to work 
anew. Such a record is, surely, honorable to any people. 

The exposition of which mention has been made, was determined upon at 
a meeting held on November 8, 1887, when $29,245 was raised. By Novem- 
ber 19, the subscriptions reached the sum of $55,000; on January 3. 1888, they 
amounted to $65,000. A charter was procured and the following officers 
elected: President, James Tobin ; vice-presidents, Patrick Walsh, Charles H. 
Phinizy, and Clement A. Evans; secretary and treasurer, J. H. Alexander;. 



I90 History of Augusta. 



general solicitor, Sanford H. Cohen. A tract of land was purchased near the 
city; a costly building, 944 feet by 400, with dome 154 feet high, erected ; 
numerous exhibits and attractions arranged for, and the exposition was within 
a short time of opening when the flood overwhelmed the city. This terrible 
disaster postponed the opening some si.xty days, but the enterprise was finally 
carried out, its crowning and peculiar glory being that the fact of its being held 
at all under the circumstances, was commented on throughout the country as 
an unparalleled instance of energy and courage. 

Rounding up the history of one hundred and fifty odd years, Augusta is 
now a great railroad center, a great manufacturing center, and a great com- 
mercial center. As has been seen in the review taken of her history, one prom- 
inent characteristic of this particular city has been its indomitable energy under 
every possible form of adversity to which municipalities are subject. We have 
seen it drenched in blood and scorched with fire in the Revolution ; but hardly 
had the smoke of the British guns dissipated on the air before the citizens of 
that day were at work with unabated courage, re-erecting churches, laying the 
corner-stone of seminaries, surveying out streets and annexing new territory. 
A little later, and when business had begun to revive, the Yazoo freshet floods 
the town, and, in carrying away the Savannah River bridge, cuts the town off 
from its valuable Carolina trade ; but almost instantly the bridge, a stupendous 
undertaking in those days, is ordered rebuilt. In 1829 the greater portion of 
the city is laid in ashes, but in 1833 we find it laying the foundations of the 
immense railway system of the State by a line from Augusta to Athens, an- 
other undertaking which merely ordinary as it seems to us now, was at that 
time of the first magnitude. In 1839 the yellow fever claims many victims, 
at least one-third of the population having an attack, and the very next year 
the river rises thirty-seven feet, again flooding the town, and inflicting damage 
to the amount of a million dollars, but, girding up its loins Augusta sets about 
another enterprise, the canal, and a few years later has it built and in active 
operation. 

In 1854 there is another access of fever, but in that very year the Central 
Railroad is brought to Augusta and the city limits largely extended, as if noth- 
ing were further from the minds of the people than a cessation of municipal 
growth. Then came on the agony of war, and, after it, the turmoil of recon- 
struction ; but, close upon the heels of these disturbing and discouraging eras, 
the city proceeds to extend its railway system, and enlarge its canal to pro- 
portions greater, in all except length, than the famous Erie Canal. Contem- 
poraneously, the city limits are extended more widely than ever before. 
Lastly, within two years of this writing, the city is visited in 1886 by a terrific 
shock of earthquake and almost to a day two years later, by a flood which 
throws even the far-famed Yazoo freshet far in the shade. And yet what effect 
have these terrific and quick succeeding calamities on Augusta ? With the 
earth trembling beneath their feet, the people of Augusta go on about their 



Intendants and Mayors. 



i9r 



daily business, stout of heart. The street-cars run, the daily paper comes out, 
the court, the counting-room, the workshop, the factory, the store witness the 
same unabated toil. The motto of Augusta, now as ever, seems to be, "sor- 
row endureth for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." 

Straightway after the freshet, the city looks about it ; seems to say like the 
man in the story, " Well, it was not so much of a shower after all ;" and com- 
posedly goes to work to vote a double tax upon itself, the year 1888 present- 
ing the spectacle of Augusta not only meeting its usual annual tax, but an 
additional tax equal to that of two ordinary years, making three years taxes in 
one. Such a spectacle of financial fortitude is not often seen. 

Another striking feature in Augusta's history is the unvarying good faith it 
has always exhibited in its monetary transactions. It has never in all its long 
history evaded or repudiated an obligation. Nor in any of its troubles, disas- 
asters and calamities has it ever invoked outside aid. Its own shoulders have 
always borne the burden of the hour. Such a record is honorable to any peo- 
ple, and in closing this sketch of Augusta's history, it can be truly said that 
the city of Augusta has, at all times, and in all circumstances, for a century 
and a half consistently maintained the reputation of an upright, self-respect- 
ing, faith-abiding and courageous municipal commonwealth. It was named 
after the Princess Augusta, one of the daughters of King George the Second, 
and has always been as its name imports, the proud city. 

Intendants and Mayors of Augusta, Ga. 
intendants. 



1798 Thomas Cumming. 

1803-4 John Murray. 

1805 William J. Hobby. 

1806 Thomas Flournoy. 

1807 John B. Barnes. 

1808 John Catlett. 



1818-19 Freeman Walker. 

1819-21 Nicholas Ware. 

1822 Robert Walker. 

1823-4 Robert Raymond Reid. 

1 825-26 William W. Holt. 

1827-36 Samuel Hale. 

1837 John Phinizy. 

1838 Samuel Hale. 

1839 Alfred Cumming. 

1840 Daniel Hook. 

1841 Martin M. Dye. 

1842 Daniel Hook. 

1843-45 Martin M. Dye. 

1846-47 Lewis D. Ford. 

1848 Ignatius P. Garvin. 

1849 James B. Bishop. 

1850-51 Thomas W. Miller. 



1809-1 1 Joseph Hutchinson. 

1812 James S. Walker. 

1813 Seaborn Jones. 

1 814 ... Joseph Hutchinson. 

181 5-16 Walter Leigh. 

1 817 Freeman Walker. 

MAYORS. 

1852-53 William E. Dearing. 

1854 Abner P . Robertson. 

1855 William E. Dearing. 

1856 George W. Evans. 

1857-58 Benjamin Conlev. 

1859-60 Foster Blodgett. 

1861-65 Robert H. May. 

1866 James T. Gardiner. 

1867 Foster Blodgett (ap- 
pointed by military com- 
mandant.) 

1868 Henry F. Russell. 

1869 J. V. H. Allen. 

1 870-7 5 Charles Estes. 

1876-79 John L^. Meyer. 

1880 Robert H. May. 



192 History of Augusta. 



CHAPTER XVHI. 

BENCH AND BAR. 

Judicial Establishment of Georgia Under the Trustees — Judicature Court — The Rum Law 
— Law Against Fine Clothes — Free Labor Law — Tenure by Tail Male -Surrender of the Char- 
ter — Judicial Establishment Under the King's Colonial Government — The Royal Governor, the 
Chancellor — Court of Chancery — Fee Bill — "Thirteen Chancellors." 

THE history of the bench and bar of Augusta is indissohibly united with the 
judicial history of Georgia. Some of the ablest lawyers and most cele- 
brated judges in the annals of the State presided and practiced at Augusta; 
for many years here were the headquarters of the Middle Judicial Circuit, in 
which lay the State capital; and the solicitor- general of this circuit was ex- 
officio, the attorney-general of the State, so that for a long course of years Au- 
gusta may be said to have been the legal center of Georgia. To speak of the 
judges and lawyers who in times past have been eminent in the city is to speak 
of the courts in which they presided and of the laws under which they prac- 
ticed, and we will, therefore, in this part of this work, consider first the judicial 
establishment of Georgia as it existed in colonial days ; then of its reorganiz- 
ation under the State government, and lastly of the many learned and brillant 
men who have adorned the legal annals of the city. 

Of the judicial establishment existing in Georgia from the first colonization 
in 1733 until the trustees surrendered their charter to the crown in 1754 we 
have meager information. By the charter it was ordained that the trustees for 
establishing the colony of Georgia in America " shall and may form and pre- 
pare laws, statutes, and ordinances fit and necessary for and concerning the 
government of the said colony, and not repugnant to the laws and statutes of 
England, and the same shall and may present, under their common seal, to us, 
our heirs, and successors in our or their privy council, for our or their appro- 
bation or disallowance ; and the said laws, statutes, and ordinances, being ap- 
proved of by us, our heirs and successors, in our or their privy council, shall, 
from thenceforth, be in full force and virtue within our said province of Geor- 
gia." It was also provided that the trustees "shall have full power and au- 
thority for and during the term of twenty-one years, to commence from the 
date of these our letters patent, to erect and constitute judicatories and courts 
of record, or other courts, to be held in the name of us, our heirs and succes- 
sors, for the hearing and determining of all manner of crimes, offenses, pleas, 
processes, plaints, actions, matters, causes, and things whatsoever arising or 
happening within said province of Georgia, or between persons of Georgia ; 
whether the same be criminal or civil, and whether the said crimes be capital 
or not capital, and whether the said pleas be real, personal, or mixed; and for 



Bench and Bar. 



193 



awarding and making out executions thereupon ; to which courts and judica- 
tories we do hereby, for us, our heirs and succesors, give and grant full power 
and authority, from time to time, to administer oaths for the discovery of truth 
in any matter in controversy or depending before them, or the solemn affirm- 
ation to any of the persons commonly called Quakers, in such manner as by 
the laws of our realm of England the same may be administered." 

The charter further provided " that all and every the persons which shall 
happen to be born within the said province, and every of their children and 
posterity, shall have and enjoy all liberties, franchises and immunities of free 
denizens and natural born subjects, within any of our dominions, to all intents 
and purposes, as if abiding and born within this our kingdom of Great Britain, 
or any other dominion." 

At that time the law of England held that English colonists carried with 
them the laws of the mother country, the birthright of every subject, meaning 
thereby " so much of the English law as is applicable to their own situation 
and the condition of an English colony;" and that "what shall be admitted 
and what rejected, at what times and under what restrictions must, in case of 
dispute, be decided in the first instance by their own provincial judicature, 
subject to the revision and control of the king in council; the whole of their 
constitution being also liable to be remodeled and reformed by the general 
superintending power of the legislature in the mother country." This view 
was considered particularly applicable to Georgia as we learn from a valuable 
work published in 1783 by Anthony Stokes, for many }'ears royal chief justice 
of that province. 

Under the charter then, and the general law of England, the first settlers 
of Georgia brought with them all the English law applicable to their new situ- 
ation ; and after their arrival were subject to have those laws, and such other 
laws as the trustees nught see fit to enact, if approved by the crown, adminis- 
tered by courts erected b}^ the trustees. The traditional loyalty of English- 
men to the common law seems to have withheld the trustees from much legis- 
lation, and accordingly the records of their judicial establishment are bare and 
jejune. They satisfied themselves with the erection of a few courts and the 
enactment of a very few laws 

The trustees organized under their charter in July, 1732, and in the Au- 
gust following appointed a committee, of which General Oglethorpe was chair- 
man, to propose laws for the benefit of the colony. It does not appear what 
report, if any, was made by this committee, nor is it at all clear but that mere 
by-laws for the management of the board were meant. In November, 1732, a 
court of judicature was established in Savannah, with power to try all causes, 
civil and criminal. At a later date it was provided with a seal, and was con- 
ducted by three judges called bailiffs, who, to ensure greater respect, wore pur- 
ple robes trimmed with fur. Their executive officer was termed constable and, 

25 



194 History of Augusta. 



as has been seen by the charter, they could pass even on capital cases. A like 
court was also established at I'^rederica. In 1744 the method of procedure 
was ordered to be c^ccording to the laws and customs of the realm of England 
and of the laws enacted for the province. The laws enacted by the trustees 
were few in number, and most of them gave rise to great dissatisfaction. One 
absolutely prohibited the drinking of brandy and rum, and ordered all vessels 
containing such liquors to be staved immediately on being brought within the 
colony The settlers vociferously insisted that in that hot and close climate it 
was absolutely necessary to have these beverages for the slacking of their 
parched clay ; but the trustees were inexorable, and repeatedly admonished 
the courts to rigidly enforce the statute. From the number of these instruc- 
tions it may fairly be inferred that the judicial establishment partook of the 
general drought, an inference which becomes almost certainty in view of a cer- 
tain passage in the minutes of a legislative body some years later where it is 
gravely set down that the house adjourned "to take a drink." The traders of 
South Carolina, where no prohibitory legislation prevailed, were quite ready to 
supply all the rum needed, and at one time a serious inter-colonial difficulty 
arose from the officers at Augusta staving a cargo which had just been brought 
into that port. Great was the popular outcry at so heinous a waste of so much 
precious material. From the incident we may gather that there was some sort 
of court at this time at Augusta, also, though no express mention of such a 
tribunal appears. 

Another act of the trustees was leveled at " the use of gold and silver in 
apparel and furniture in Georgia, and for preventing extravagance and luxury." 
The date of this statute was 1737, but four years after the foundation, and the 
law seems to infer either that some wealthy colonists had then come over, or 
that the first settlers had prospered wonderfully. Still another act prohibited 
the purchase or use of negro slaves in the colony. It was supposed that this 
kind of labor would enervate the colonists, and not only render them averse to 
building up the settlement with their own hands, but form an element of dan- 
ger in the infant commonwealth. Here again, the example of South Carolina, 
where slavery obtained, was ever before the Georgians, and rendered them 
grievously discontented with their own less favored status. 

A fourth act, and possibly the most obnoxious of all, was the tenure of lands. 
By the charter the crown had granted the land to the trustees, with power to 
sub-let; and in portioning out the soil, the trustees rigidly insisted on making 
the tenure tail male, that is to a man and his heirs male. The object was the 
same as on the establishment of the feudal system, namely, to have the tenant 
always a man fit for military service. If a settler died, leaving only daughters, 
the land reverted to the trustees, to be regranted to some tenant capable of 
bearing arms. Again and again the colonists petitioned and remonstrated, 
demanding lands in fee simple. For a long time the trustees steadily resisted 



Bench and Bar 195 



the appeals of the settlers on the matter of the tenure of lands, use of negroes, 
and allowance of rum. In 1742 steps were taken to repeal the prohibition act, 
and in the same year Governor Stephens was instructed to examine into and 
report upon the real views of the people as to negro slavery, and how far and 
under what restrictions it might be advisable to rescind the original statute. 
Rum and slavery were finally allowed, and some modifications made in the law 
of entails, and, pleased with these concessions, the colonists went to work and 
soon improved the condition of affairs. The trustees seem not to have taken 
the repeal of their laws so well, and were evidently not ill pleased at the ap- 
proach of the time, when under their charter, the form of government and ap- 
pointment of officers for the colony was to devolve upon the crown. By the 
charter it was provided that the trustees " shall, from time to time, for and 
during and unto the full end and expiration of twenty-one years, to commence 
from the date of these our letters patent, have full power and authority to 
nominate, make, constitute, commission, ordain, and appoint, by such name or 
names, style or styles, as to them shall seem meet and fitting, all and singular 
such governors, judges, magistrates, ministers, and officers, civil and military, 
both by sea and land, within the said districts, as shall by them be thought fit 
and needful to be made or used for the said government of the said colony, 
save always and except such officers only as shall by us, our heirs and succes- 
sors, be from time to time constituted and appointed for the managing, col- 
lecting, and receiving such revenues as shall from time to time arise within 
the said province of Georgia, and become due to us, our heirs and successors;" 
and " from and after the determination of the said term of one and twenty 
years, such form of government and method of making laws, statutes, and ordi- 
nances for the better governing and ordering the said province of Georgia, and 
the inhabitants thereof, shall be established and observed within the same, as 
we, our heirs and successors, shall hereafter ordain and appoint, and shall be 
agreeable to law; and that, from and after the determination of the said term 
of one and twenty years, the governor of our said province of Georgia, and all 
officers, civil and military, within the same, shall, from time to time, be nomi- 
nated and constituted and appointed by us, our heirs and successor^." 

It is not the case, therefore, as is currently supposed, that the trustees vol- 
untarily surrendered their charter, whereby Georgia, from a proprietar}', be- 
came a royal government. The charter having been granted on June 9, 1732, 
by the terms thereof, as just seen, the government of the colony reverted on 
June 9, 1753, to the crown. 

It is true that the trustees did execute a formal written relinquishment and 
surrender of their charter to the crown, but that instrument expressly recites 
that they were to have the government of the colony for twenty-one years and 
no more by the terms of their charter, so that this was not the ground on which 
the surrender was based. The charter gave them seven- eighths of the territory 



196 History of Augusta. 

specified therein, and by indenture of February 28, 1732, from Lord Carteret, 
afterwards Karl Granville, they had previously obtained the other one- eighth. 
There was no provision in tiie charter that the title to the territory owned by 
the trustees sliouUl revert to the crown, and hence an indenture was requisite 
to convey the same. The indenture, therefore, conveys all and singular the 
rights of tile trustees under the charter of whatsoever nature ; and, in particu- 
lar all the territory conveyed them by the crown and by Lord Carteret, " to- 
gether with all the soils, grounds, havens, ports, gulphs and bays, mines, as 
well, royal mines of gold and silver, as other minerals, precious stones, quarries, 
woods, rivers, waters, fishings, as well, royal fishings of whale and sturgeon as 
other fishings, pearls, commodities, jurisdictions, royalties, franchises, privileges, 
and pre-eminences, within the said territories and the precincts thereof, and 
thereunto in any sort belonging or appertaining .... subject never- 
theless, and without prejudice to all such grants, leases, contracts, estates, and 
interests, in law or equity as have been heretofore lawfully made or granted by 
the said trustees for establishing the colony of Georgia in America, or by any 
acting in authority under them in America, and which are now subsisting ac- 
cording to letters patent." 

On the surrender of the charter the Lords Commissioners for Trade and 
Plantations were directed to lay before the privy council a plan for the gov- 
ernment of the colony of Georgia, which they did early in 1754. This plan 
was approved, and by it the government was modeled on that of the other royal 
governments, or king's colonies ; or, as nearly as practicable, on that of the 
home government. The governor represented the king ; there was a colonial 
parliament called the Assembly, consisting of an upper house, representing the 
House of Lords, and a Commons House of Assembly, representing the House 
of Commons ; and a regular judicial establishinent of law, equity, admiralty and 
other courts. The governor was appointed by, and held office at, the pleasure 
of the crown. He was officially styled His Excellency, and was " Captain- 
General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Province of Georgia, and Chan- 
cellor. Vice Admiral, and Ordinary of the same." He had the power to veto 
all bills ; convene, adjourn, prorogue, and dissolve the Assembly; could appoint 
to fill all vacancies ; paidon all crimes except treason and murder, but could 
reprieve or suspend in the excepted cases until the king's pleasure was known; 
he exercised chancery, probate, and admiralty jurisdiction ; and collated, or 
appointed, to churches all clergymen of the Church of England. The Council, 
or Upper House of Assembly, consisted of twelve " members in ordinary "and 
two " extraordinary members," all appointed by the crown, one of the extra- 
ordinary members being the surveyor-general of the customs and the other the 
superintendent-general of Indian afl'airs. In its legislative capacity the council 
formed one branch of the Assembly and were presided over by the lieutenant- 
governor. In its executive capacity it was the governor's privy council. When 



Bench and Bar 



197 



in legislative session it was governed by the rules of the House of Lords. The 
Commons House of Assembly was composed of members elected from the 
various parishes into which the State was divided. The qualification of an 
elector was fifty acres of land in the parish where he voted ; and of representa- 
tive, five hundred acres of land in any part of the province. The commons 
elected their own speaker, messenger, and doorkeeper, but the governor ap- 
pointed the clerk. They remained in session until adjourned by the governor; 
claimed the exclusive right to originate money bills, and had most of the priv- 
ileges of the British House of Commons ; and, like the Commons, received 
no pay. 

Of the judicial establishment we may speak more at large. As has been 
stated, the royal governor was ex- officio chancellor of the province. He had, 
like his English prototype, the custody of the great seal, and, when sitting as 
chancellor, had the same powers of judicature as the lord high chancellor in 
England. The proceedings in the colonial Chancery were similar to those of 
the High Court of Chancery in England, and the books of practice then used 
in England governed the colonial practice, except in a few instances of local 
import. One notable exception, however, was that the subpoena was made re- 
turnable immediately ; and " in case of a contempt," says Chief Justice Stokes, 
" the plaintiff (when a commission of rebellion is returned non est inventu 5)^^x0- 
ceeds to sequestration, without an order for a sergeant- at arms." In drawing 
a bill in the Georgia Chancery the form was thus : 

" Georgia,. ) To His Excellency, A. B.,Esq., Captain General and Gov- 
"In Chancery. S ernor in Chief in and over his Majesty's province of Georgia, 
and Chancellor, Vice- Admiral, and Ordinary of the same : Humbly com- 
plaining, sheweth unto your Excellency, your Orator &c. &c." 

From the decision of the governor sitting as chancellor, an appeal lay to 
the king in council, in causes where the value of the property in dispute ex- 
ceeded five hundred pounds sterling; but where the matter in question related 
to the taking o'* demanding of any duty payable to the king, or to any fee of 
office, or annual rent, or other such like matter or thing where rights in future 
might be bound, an appeal lay, irrespective of the amount involved. The ap- 
peal was required to be made within fourteen days from the pronouncing of 
the decree ; and the appellant was to give good security that he would effec- . 
tually prosecute his appeal, and also pay such costs and damages as might be 
awarded by the king in case the decree of the chancellor was affirmed. On 
lodgement of the appeal, the prothonotary was to copy out all the proceedings 
in a fair hand on large paper and make affidavit that he had compared the 
copy with the original, and that the same was a true copy. Copy and affidavit 
were then attached together and handed the governor, who affixed the great 
seal thereto, when they were ready for transmission to the crown. One year 
was allowed for the transmission after entrance of appeal. Should the chan- 



198 History of Augusta. 

cellor doubt of his decree he could take such time as he saw proper to deliber- 
ate thereon ; and from any decree rendered, whether interlocutory or final, the 
defendant could appeal, for which reasons a chancery cause of moment in Ge- 
orgia was almost interminable. 

The Court of Chancery had a master ; also an e.xaminer and register ; and 
the fees of these officers, as also those of the chancellor himself are set down in 
an ancient statute. 

The Chancellor's Fees. — Sealing every writ, three shillings and sevenpence; 
signing a decree in chancery, fourteen shillings and twopence ; every order on 
motion or petition, three shillings and sevenpence ; signing and sealing an ex- 
emplification of a decree, fourteen shillings and twopence ; hearing and deter- 
mining every cause, one pound eight shillings and fourpence. 

The Master in Chancery's Fees. — Every summons, one shilling and ten- 
pence halfpenny ; copies of charges and discharges brought before the mas- 
ter, each side containing fifteen lines and six words in a line, fourpence half- 
penny; taking affidavits in writing, if drawn by the master (the oath included),. 
one shilling and tenpence halfpenny; every other oath, ninepence ; taxing a 
bill of costs, two shillings and fivepence; all accounts referred to him for ex- 
amination or settling, to be allowed for at the discretion of the Court of Chan- 
cery; taking a recognizance, three shillings and sevenpence; every day's at- 
tendance upon a final hearing, three shillings and sevenpence. 

Fees of the Examiner and Register in Chancery. — Filing a bill, petition, 
affidavit or other paper, fourpence halfpenny; every writ of subpa'ua, one 
shilling and tenpence ; attending the chancellor or Court of Chancery on the 
hearing a petition or motion, three shillings and sixpence ; attending the chan- 
cellor at his chambers, and for every other necessary attendance, one shilling 
and ninepence; reading every paper, one shilling and ninepence; a writ of 
Ne Exeat Provincia, injunction, or other special writ, ten shillings; every order 
on a petition or motion, two shillings ; entering a rule or order, per copy sheet, 
fourpence halfpenny; every search, eightpence; copy of an order, bill, an- 
swer, or other paper, per copy sheet, fourpence halfpenny ; every rule, two 
shillings; taking depositions of a witness, per copy sheet, sixpence halfpenny; 
copying such depositions, per copy sheet, fourpence halfpenny; setting down 
a cause or demurrer for hearing, one shilling and one penny; attending at 
the hearing a cause or pronouncing a decree each day, three shillings; enter- 
ing a motion, one shilling and one penny; entering the minutes of a decree, 
each copy sheet, fourpence halfpenny ; drawing a decree, each copy sheet, 
fourpence halfpenny; every attachment, one shilling and tenpence; entering 
an appearance, each defendant, two shillings. 

In his famous work on "Equity Jurisprudence," Mr. Justice Story says that 
"in many of the colonies, during their connection with Great Britain, equity 
jurisprudence had either no existence at all, or a very imperfect and irregular 



Bench and Bar. i^^ 



administration ; " but, however this may have been in the other provinces, what 
has been said is sufficient to show that the Court of Chancery had a very early 
existence and complete operation in Georgia. 

The Chancery Bar was a recognized institution, and we find in an old court 
roll the names of the following as solicitors in the Chancery before the Revo- 
lution : Robert Hamilton, James Roberts, Thomas Ross, William McKenzie 
John Houstoun, and George Walton. Both of the latter rose in time to be gov- 
ernor of Georgia as a State, and Mr. Walton was for years judge of the Supe- 
rior Court of Augusta. That the Chancery Bar was in active practice, appears 
from their fee bill, yet extant. 

Fees of the Solicitors in Chancery. — A retaining fee, fourteen shillings and 
twopence ; every attendance at court when any business is done, three shil- 
lings ; court fee at hearing the cause, seven shillings and one penny; drawing 
every bill, answer, plea, demurrer, replication or other paper, each copy sheet, 
sixpence halfpenny; fair copy and engrossing same, per copy sheet, each copy 
sheet containing ninety words, fourpence halfpenny; signing thereof, three 
shillings and sevenpence ; every motion in court or defending same, three shil- 
lings and sixpence ; a brief or abstract of the proceedings, each copy sheet of 
such proceedings, fourpence halfpenny ; every brief on hearing the cause, or 
arguing demurrer or exceptions, fourteen shillings and twopence ; drawing a 
bill of costs and attending taxation thereof, two shillings and fivepence ; copy 
of the same and notice, one shilling and threepence ; attending the master on 
any reference to him by order of the court, three shillings and sevenpence ; 
drawing every decree, each copy sheet, ninepence. 

It may here be remarked that the colonial Court of Chancery obtained its 
highest degree of excellence while Sir James Wright was governor, and ex- 
officio, chancellor. During the administration of this able man, the colony in- 
creased rapidly in wealth and population, it being recorded that he found an ex- 
port trade of ;^3o,ooo per annum, and left one of i;200,ooo. Governor Wright 
had been bred a lawyer, and was at the time of his appointment in practice in 
Charleston, S. C, and from this training and experience made an excellent 
chancellor. Chief Justice Stokes, who had considerable experience in a number 
of the colonies, having from time to time held judicial appointments therein, 
speaks very highly of Governor Wright's legal abilities, and contrasts the rep- 
utation made by the Georgia Court of Chancery with the chancery in other 
colonies, particularly in South Carolina, quite unfavorably to the latter. He 
states that one governor of South Carolina was inadvertently drawn in to ap- 
prove a bill which made the twelve councillors judges of the Court of Chan- 
cery, so that the spectacle was presented of thirteen chancellors in a row. 
Justice Stokes states that this was the rule in Barbadoes, Antigua and Mont- 
serrat, and that in its operation it caused great inconveniences. It led to de- 
lays, because it was necessary to call on the council from difterent parts of the 



200 History of Augusta. 



province at every cause; it led to hasty judgments, as in difficult matters, the 
temptation was to decide off-hand, lest by consideration another meeting 
would become necessary; and, lastly, it lowered tbe tone of the court by di- 
viding the responsibility of the decree. " A chancellor," says he, " when he 
sits alone (be his disposition what it may), will hardly venture to commit any 
flagrant acts of injustice. Jkit when a dozen councillors are placed on the 
bench with him, defendit numerus ; and, if they are inclined to do mischief, 
they keep each other in countenance, and there are thirteen to divide the cen- 
sure amongst them." 

This ill opinion of thirteen chancellers survived in Georgia long after Chief 
Justice Stokes had been relegated back to his royal master, and it was only by 
a sort of tacit connivance, finally ripening by usage into a rule, that it became 
established in Georgia as a State. In 1847 the judge of Muscogee Superior 
Court finally decided an equity cause without the intervention of a jury, and 
his right so to do was the question before the Supreme Court. That tribunal 
decided for the thirteen chancellors, saying " it was at one time a question in 
Georgia whether a jury was at all necessary in trials in equity. That is to say, 
whether the act of 1799, conferring chancery powers on the superior courts, 
did not clothe the judge with the powers of a chancellor in England. I advert 
to this not for the purpose of discussing the question, but of saying that such 
a doubt no longer exists — that the usage of the Superior Courts for a long 
series of years has been to submit the facts in all trials in equity to a jury, and 
that this usage has been sanctioned by repeated acts of the Legislature recog- 
nizing it. I have no doubt that it had its origin in quite sufficient authority of 
law. In Georgia the judge and the jury constitute the chancellor." — 3 Geor- 
gia Reports, 163—4. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

BENCH AND BAR CONTINUED. 

Common Law Courts— The Chief Justice of Georgia — Grover, Simpson and Stokes, Chief 
Justices — Commission — Fees — The General Court— Origin of Superior Court — Judges — Attor- 
ney-General — Provost Marshal — Clerk of the Crown — Court of Ordinary — Couri of Conscience 
— Justices of the Peace — Early J. P's. in Augusta— Oyer and Terminer — Court of Admiralty 
— -Appeals — Court of Errors — Writ of Error — Appeal to the King — The Colonial Bar — Pomp, 
Form and Circumstance — Robes, Seals and Precedence. 

THE common law courts under the royal establishment were divided into 
superior and inferior, all under the superintcndency of a chief justice. 
The first of these functionaries was William Grover, commissioned April 13, 
1759, under the administration of Governor Ellis, and removed by Governor 
Sir James Wright, on November 5, 1762, for conduct unbecoming a- judicial 



Bench and Bar. 201 



officer. The second chief justice was Wilham Simpson, appointed December 
15, 1766, but of whose career we have no information. The third and last of 
the royal chief justices was Anthony Stokes, who held from September i, 1769, 
until the independence of the United States was recognized in 1783. Chief 
Justice Stokes was an English barrister, and in 1762 left Westminster Hall to 
practice in the West India colonies of Antigua and the Leeward Isles. Here 
he seems to have obtained prominence, and from his familiarity with provincial 
jurisprudence was appointed in 1769 to be his majesty's chief justice of Geor- 
gia. In this position he acted acceptably, and much to the improvement of 
the jurisprudence of the colony, till Savannah was taken by the American 
forces at the outbreak of the Revolution, and Governor Wright and Chief 
Justice Stokes both made prisoners. The governor effected his escape to a 
British man-of-war, but the chief justice remained a prisoner for some weeks, 
and was finally exchanged, with liberty to leave the country. He returned to 
England and there set about the preparation of a work on the political and 
legal institutions of the American and West India colonies, but while so en- 
gaged, Savannah was retaken by the British in 1778, and the justice re- 
ceived the royal mandate to return to Georgia, and there resume his functions. 
He set out accordingly in a king's ship, which had not voyaged far before it 
was attacked by a French cruiser, and in the engagement so much damaged 
that it became neccsssary for her to return to England to refit. Starting on a 
second voyage, Justice Stokes reached Georgia in safety in 1779, and there re- 
mained till May, 1783, when he again went back to England on the conclusion 
of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States. During 
the siege of Savannah by the allied French and American forces, the quarters 
of the chief justice were burned by a shell, and many of his papers destroyed by 
the conflagration, so that, as he tells us, in his work "A View of the constitution 
of the British Colonies in North America and the West Indies," published in 
London in 1783, much of the material he had prepared perished, but his book 
is esteemed valuable for all that, in giving us an insight into the Colonial estab- 
lishments, particularly as to the judiciary. The chapters on the admiralty 
practice are specially valuable, and have been cited as authority by the Su- 
preme Court of the United States. As a lawyer. Chief Justice Stokes was 
well grounded in his profession, and as a judge sought diligently to do justice. 
There can be no question but that he rendered a service to the jurisprudence 
of Georgia which has never been acknowledged or appreciated. The manner 
of the appointment of a chief justice in those days of form and ceremony, was 
by the issuance to the appointee of a warrant under the royal sign manual, 
whereupon the governor of the colony issued him a commission in the form of 
letters patent. The warrant and letters read as follows : 

"George R. Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. Whereas we 
have taken into our royal consideration the loyalty, integrity and ability of 

2(5 



202 History of Augusta. 



our trusty and well-beloved A. B., Esq.; we have thought fit hereby to author- 
ize and require you forthwith to cause letters patent to be passed under the 

seal of our province of .constituting and appointing him, the said A. B,, 

to be our chief justice of, and in our said Province, in the room of L. M., Esq., 
deceased : To Have, Hold, Execute and Enjoy the said office unto him the 
said A. B., for and during our pleasure, and his residence within our said prov- 
ince, together with all and singular the rights, profits, privileges and emolu- 
ments unto the said place belonging, in the most full and ample manner, with 
full power and authority to hold the Supreme Courts of Judicature, at such 
places and times as the same may and ought to be held within our said Prov- 
ince : and for so doing, this shall be your warrant : and So we bid you fare- 
well. Given at our Court at St. James the. . . .day of. ... 17. . .in the 

year of our reign. By His Majesty's Command." 

This warrant being received by the governor, he issued letters patent ac- 
cordingly : 

" George the Third, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ire- 
land, King, defender of the faith, &c., to all to whom these presents shall come, 
greeting: Know ye that we, taking into our royal consideration the loyalty, 
integrity and ability of our trusty and well-beloved A. B., Esq., have consti- 
tuted and appointed him the said A. B. our chief justice of and in our province 

of in America, in the room ol L. M., Esq., deceased, to have, hold, 

exectite, and enjoy the said office unto him the said A. B., for and during our 
pleasure, and his residence within our said province, together with all and sin- 
gular the rights, profits, privileges, and emoluments unto the said place belong- 
ing, in the most full and ample manner, with full power and authority to hold 
the Supreme Courts of Judicature at such place, and times as the same may 
and ought to be held within our said Province. In witness whereof we have 
caused these our letters to be made patent. Witness, His Excellency D. E., 
Esq., our captain general and governor in chief in and over our said Province 

of at the day of in the year of our 

reign. D. E. 

*' By his Majesty's Warrant, under his r Great 

royal sign manual and signet, dated at | Seal 

his court of St. James the . . day of . . "^ of the )> 

17.. in the .. year of his reign." j l^ro^ince | 

The emoluments of the royal chief justice were by no means inconsidera- 
ble, consisting of a salary of ^500 from the crown, and fees for almost every 
judicial act. The fee bill is of interest as manifesting the then practice of the 
law courts. 

The Chief Justices' F"ees. — For every writ of habeas corpus, two shillings 
and sixpence ; every other writ or process, original, judicial, or mesne, and 



Bench and Bar. 203. 



■every other writ or process whatsoever in a civil or criminal case, one shilling 
and tenpence halfpenny; every summons at chambers, one shilling; every 
order or rule, whether at chambers or at court, sixpence ; every recognizance 
taken before him in a civil or criminal case, three shillings and sixpence ; every 
warrant by him, two shillings and tenpence; every mittimus by him, one shil- 
ling and tenpence; every affidavit in writing taken before him, one shilling and 
fivepence ; administering an oath in court or at chambers, ninepence ; every 
deposition taken before him to send out of the province, one shilling ; every 
copy of a record under the seal ©f the court to send out of the province, two 
shillings and sixpence ; every other exemplification under the seal of the court 
and for signing the testimonial thereof, five shillings and fivepence ; taking 
acknowledgment of satisfaction, ninepence ; judge's books on an issue of law 
or fact in a civil or criminal case, three shillings and sevenpence; taxing a bill 
of costs in a civil or criminal case, two shillings and fivepence ; drawing a 
special jury, five shillings and ninepence; drawing a special jury at a special 
court, five shillings and ninepence; every special court and attendance thereon» 
fourteen shillings and twopence ; the admission of an attorney, two pounds, 
seventeen shillings and sixpence; every judgment confessed out of court, six 
shillings ; taking the private examination of a feme-covert and signing the tes- 
timonial thereof, seven shillings and one penny ; cross-examination of any 
witness out of court, three shillings and sevenpence ; every attachment for a 
contempt and seal of court, seven shillings and one penny ; every judgment in 
-a civil or criminal case, one shilling and tenpence halfpenny ; every motion in 
arrest of judgment or demurrer in law on special verdict, or for a new trial in 
a civil or criminal case, one shilling; hearing every motion, six shillings and 
a penny ; every indictment found, three shillings and sevenpence ; the exam- 
ination of a person committed for a contempt of court, ten shillings and nine- 
pence ; the admission of a guardian to prosecute or defend a cause for a per- 
son under age, two shillings ; entering an action in the judge's book that is to 
be tried by a jury, one shilling ; receiving a private verdict, one shilling and 
sixpence ; for allowance of a writ of error, three shillings and sevenpence ; re- 
turning a writ of error, one shilling and tenpence halfpenny ; for the trial or 
hearing of any cause whether civil or criminal or writ of enquiry, three shil- 
lings and sevenpence ; discontinuing of any action, one shilling ; prohibition 
granted, four shillings and ninepence ; a dedimiis potestateni, seven shillings 
and one penny ; marking the roll that a writ of error is allowed, one shilling ; 
transcript of the record, examined by the judge to be annexed to a writ of 
error, three shillings and sevenpence ; return oi certiorari in a civil or criminal 
case, two shillings ; allowance of a writ of audita qtierela, three shillings and 
sevenpence; every appeal to the General Court Trom an order or adjudication 
of any justice or justices of the peace, one shilling; for every capias against 
defauting jurors, one shilling. 



204 History of Augusta. 



The distribution of the law courts was as follows : The chief court of law 
was termed the General Court, sometimes the General Court of Pleas, and, in 
time, was commonly known as the Superior Court, to distinguish it from infe- 
rior judicatories. It had all the powers of the King's Bench, Common Pleas, 
and Exchequer, and is. therefore, the lineal progenitor, in name and common 
law jurisdiction of the present Superior Court of Georgia, the highest tribunal 
of original jurisdiction in the State. This court was held by the chief justice 
and two assistant judges, but any one of themvvas competent to try causes. 
The letters patent creating this tribunal will be of interest : 
" Georgia. 

" George the Second, by the grace of GOD, of Great Britain, France, and 
Ireland, King, Defender of the faith, and so forth : To all to whom these pres- 
ent letters shall come, greeting: Know ye that we, tendering the state and 
condition of our province of Georgia, and being willing and desirous that jus- 
tice be duly and regularly administered therein, have thought fit to erect and 
constitute and by these presents do erect and constitute a Court of Record, by 
the name and style of the General Court to be holden yearly at Savannah, 
within our said Province on the second Tuesday in January, the second Tues- 
day in April, the second Tuesday in July, and the second Tuesday in October* 
before our trusty and well beloved Noble Jones and Jonathan Bryan, Esquires, 
or one of them, whom we hereby appoint our justices thereof, during our 
pleasure, and others our justices appointed for the time being. And we do 
hereby give and grant unto the said Noble Jones and Jonathan Bryan, and 
each of them, and all others our justices of the said General Court, for the 
time being, full power, jurisdiction, and authority to enquire by the oaths of 
good and lawful men of the province aforesaid, and by other ways and means 
by which the truth of the matter may be better known and enquired into, of all 
treasons, felonies, and other crimes and criminal offences whatsoever, done or 
committed within our said Province by any persons whomsoever, and the same 
to hear and determine according to the laws and customs of our said Province, 
saving to us and our successors all fines, forfeitures and amerciaments, and all 
other things to us on account thereof belonging and appertaining. And, fur- 
ther, we give and grant to the said Noble Jones and Jonathan Bryan, and each 
other, our justices of our said General Court for the time being, full power, 
jurisdiction, and authority to hold pleas in any and all manner of causes, 
suits, and actions whatsoever, as well criminal as civil, real, personal, and mixed, 
arising, happening, or being within our said province where the sum or thing 
demanded shall exceed the value of forty shillings sterling, except only where 
the title to any freehold shall come in question, and to proceed in such pleas, 
suits, and actions, by such ways, means, and process, as may with the greatest 
safety, dispatch, and justice, bring the same to a final determination and also to 
hear and determine all such pleas, suits, and actions, and judgment thereupoa 



Bench and Bar. 



205 



to give, and execution thereof to award and issue, and this as fully and amply 
as can or may be done by our Court of King's Bench, Common Pleas, and Ex- 
chequer in England, doing therein what of right and justice ought to be done. 
In testimony whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent^^nd 
the seal of our said province to be affixed thereto. Witness our worthy and 
well beloved John Reynolds, Esq., captain-general and governor-in-chief, in 
and over our said province of Georgia, the twelfth day of December in the 
twenty-eighth year of our reign. J. REYNOLDS. 

" By his Excellency's command, 
"James Habersham, 

" Secretary. [Great Seal of Georgia.] " 

Judge Jones was in some sort a provincial Lord Mansfield, having, like the 
great English jurist, been a soldier in his earlier days. He came into the col- 
ony with Oglethorpe as an officer of marines, and did some valorous fighting" 
in the war with the Spaniards at Bloody Marsh and the attack on St. Simons. 
Later he was made commander of the colony militia, and still later was com- 
missioned colonel of the regiment raised for defense of the province. In 1751 
he was made register, or, as we would say, chief of the land office ; and two 
years after was a member of the proprietary governor's council. In 1754 he 
became a king's councillor and so remained till raised to the bench in 1759. 
Judge Jones died at an advanced age just at the outbreak of the Revolution. 

Jonathan Bryan, the other assistant judge, was born in South Carolina in 
1708. In 1752 he settled in Georgia, and on the establishment of the king's 
government was raised to the bench. Unlike his associate Judge Jones, who- 
was an unswerving loyalist to the last, Judge Bryan was the first man in Geor- 
gia to fall under the royal ban in the Revolutionary struggle. He presided 
over a meeting called in Savannah in 1775 to denounce the action of the crown 
in seeking to oppress America, and when Sir James Wright called his council 
together and a motion was made to expel the judge for disloyalty, he at once 
handed in his resignation as councillor. The king, highly incensed, removed 
him from the bench ; and, after the fall of Savannah Judge Bryan was taken 
prisoner by the British and sent prisoner to New York. Having been ex- 
changed he returned to Georgia and at a subsequent period, though then eighty 
years old, fought under General Wayne, closing his life as his associate had be- 
gun it, in the tented field. 

The practice in the General Court was, for the most part, similar to that in 
the English courts of law. The action was commenced by suing out a writ, 
which was made returnable on a day certain, and after the return of the writ, 
the plaintiff filed his declaration ; all original writs issued out of the General 
Court (except audita querela, which issued out of the chancery) and were tested 
in the name of the chief justice. No real actions were used except actions for 
dower ; titles to land being tried by ejectment, trespass, or replevin. The 



2o6 History of Augusta. 



practice in criminal cases was also similar to that in the English courts, but no 
instance of outlawry was ever known. 

The General Court was attended by the attorney- general, and had for its 
executive officer a provost- marshal, who discharged the duties of sheriff. It 
had also a " Clerk of the General Court," on the civil side of the court, and 
a "Clerk of the Crown and Peace" on the criminal side. There was also a 
crier. Fee bills were provided for all these functionaries. Among other items 
the attorney-general received fourteen shillings on each true bill ; seven shil- 
lings and a penny for each brief; and the same for each opinion on matters 
submitted by the governor. The clerk of the crown had ninepence for every 
indictment, and sixpence for every cause entered on the trial book ; swearing 
the grand jury, each juror fourpence halfpenny; arraignment, two shillings 
and tenpence, and sentence same. The clerk of the General Court had nine- 
pence for each writ; swearing jury, four shillings and threepence; entering ver- 
dict, tenpence. The provost-marshal had three pounds for swearing jury ; 
mileage twopence one farthing ; dieting white prisoners, tenpence ; negroes, 
sixpence three farthings; executing a criminal, fourteen shillings and twopence; 
levy, eight shillings and sixpence; executing bench warrant, three shillings 
and sevenpence. The crier had sixpence for each cause, and every attorney 
was bound to give him a shilling at the end of each term of court. 

Next is the Court of Ordinary. The royal governor was, as has been seen, 
ordinary of the province, and had the exclusive power of granting probate of 
wills and administration of intestate estates. The governor not infrequently 
appointed a deputy to attend to these matters, and the procedure was this : 
the executor producing the will to the ordinary made oath that it was the last 
will and testament of deceased, and that he would truly administer the estate 
and pay debts and legacies. Appraisers were then appointed on the estate, 
and their report filed in the office of the secretary of the province. No letters 
of administration were granted until a citation had been issued and read in the 
church by the minister during the time of divine service on the Sunday before 
letters were granted; the administrator was then sworn and appraisement of the 
estate had as in the case of executors. Some of the fees in the Court of Or- 
dinary were: Marriage license, fourteen shillings and twopence; letters of ad- 
ministration, if under fifteen pounds, three shillings and sixpence ; if over, 
double; probate of will, three shillings and sixpence; letters of guardianship, 
seven shillings and a penny; letters dismissory, same; litigated cause, fourteen 
shillings and twopence. 

There were also Justice Courts, and it may be here noted that as early as 
1773 we see the original of the Georgia Militia District, which is now synony- 
mous with the territorial jurisdiction of a Justice Court. An act of that year 
provides that the officers of each regiment are "to fix and ascertain the dis- 
tricts or bounds of every company." 



Bench and Bar. 207 



The provincial Justice Courts had jurisdiction in actions on contracts, or 
for damages, up to eight pounds sterHng. If the debt or damages claimed 
were under forty shillings two justices and three jury men were required to sit; 
if over that amount, two justices and a jury of twelve. Where the debt or 
damages were under forty shillings there was no appeal from the judgment ; if 
over that amount an appeal might be taken to the General Court. These 
courts were not officially styled Justice Courts, but Courts of Conscience, but 
the popular designation was Inferior Courts, just as the General Court came to 
be known as the Superior Court, whence those names have been transplanted 
into the present judicial nomenclature of Georgia. The jurisdiction of the In- 
ferior Court was limited to the parish where thinly peopled, or to the subor- 
dinate divisions or districts of the parish where more thickly settled. They 
disposed of a great deal of business, having in addition to their civil jurisdiction 
authority as courts of inquiry in criminal matters. Some of the items of the 
justices fee bill illustrate the practice: For a warrant and oath in criminal case, 
one shilling and fivepence ; recognizance, same ; commitment, ninepence; war- 
rant in civil cases, one shilling ; examining witnesses and hearing and deter- 
mining a cause, one shilling and fivepence ; " a hue and cry, one shilling and 
tenpence halfpenny." 

The Inferior Courts had a constable, who performed duties analogous to 
the officer of the same name of the present day, and had among his fees the 
following : Serving warrant, one shilling ; poundage, threepence in the pound 
on all levies ; search warrant, two shillings and tenpence ; " carrying on an hue 
and cry, five shillings and fourpence." 

Early in the history of Augusta we find James Fraser acting as justice in 
this city, though under the title of Conservator of the Peace, in which office he 
was assisted b)^ three freeholders. Under the royal establishment the justices 
were more numerous. St. Paul's is reported as one of the most populous par- 
ishes and had quite a number of justices, among others John Oliver, William 
Harding, James Marshall, James McFarland, and James Seymour. The office 
seems to have been one of dignity and importance ; and Button Gwinnett, 
afterwards governor of Georgia, appears in the commission at one time for the 
parish of St. John. There was also a coroner, and this officer and the local 
justices were the jury commissioners for all courts held in their respective jur- 
isdictions. In addition to all these courts, special terms of the General Courts 
were not infrequently held for the expediting of civil business, the court being- 
then termed Courts of Common Pleas, and Courts of Oyer and Terminer were 
held for the trial of criminal causes. Special taxes were imposed to meet the 
expenses of these latter tribunals, and among the collectors of this tax at vari- 
ous periods in Augusta were tlie following : John Rae, Martin Campbell, Pat- 
rick Brown, David Douglass, Daniel Clarke, Lachlin McGillivray, John Will- 
iams, William Sluthers, Dugald Campbell, John Fitch, Robert Germany, Dr. 



2o8 History of Augusta. 



William Day, John Pettigrew, and John Walton. Tlie expenses of the Court 
of Oyer and Terminer were ;i^ii5 for 1757; for 1758, iJ'iSS; and for 1760 the 
same. In this latter year James DeVeaux was senior judge of the court. In 
1768 the expenses were ^^190. 

There was also a Court of Admiralty, whereof the governor was judge. We 
have already seen that, among other attributes, he was vice-admiral of the 
province. The jurisdiction of this court was quite extensive, and in the sepa- 
rate commission which the governor received as vice-admiral its main features 
were set out. The commission declared the governor " our vice-admiral, com- 
missary and deputy in the office of vice-admiralty in our Province of Georgia," 
and empowered him to take cognizance of all maritime causes, of wrecks, pi- 
rates, marine forfeitures, " flotson, jetson, lagon," derelict, anchorage, lastage, 
ballast, " fishes royal, namely, sturgeons, whales, porpoises, dolphins, kiggs, 
and grampusses, and generally of all other fishes whatsoever, which are of a 
great or very large bulk or fatness ; " to preserve the rivers and ports of proper 
depth ; to reform nets too close, and abate all unlawful engines for the catch- 
ing offish ; to enforce the trade and revenue acts for the colonies; and deter- 
mine all matters of prize. 

The Court of Vice-Admiralty had exclusive jurisdiction of all maritime 
cause and matters of prize, and concurrent jurisdiction with the General Court 
in cases of forfeitures and penalties for breach of any act of parliament relating 
to the trade and revenue of the British colonies in America, the informer hav- 
ing the option of filing his information in either court. The Vice- Admiralty 
was fully organized with an advocate general, the attorney general acting as 
such, proctors, a register, and marshal. As judge of the Admiralty the gov- 
ernor, or his deput}', he ordinarily appointing one, had, among other fees, for 
admitting a libel, three shillings and sevenpence ; citation, one shilling and 
tenpence ; hearing the cause, fourteen shillings and twopence; interlocutory 
decree, seven shillings and a penny; definitive sentence, fourteen shillings and 
twopence; issuing letters of marque, two pounds and two shillings. The ad- 
vocate-general had, retainer, fourteen shillings and twopence ; arguing point 
of law, seven shilhngs and one penny; brief, three shillings and seven pence; 
court fee in each cause, seven shillings and one penny. The proctors had same 
fees as the advocate- general. The register had, for each warrant, one shilling 
and tenpence; citation, ninepence ; decrees, fourpence halfpenny per sheet; 
services on letters of marque, four shillings and threepence. When pirates 
were tried he had, for reading the commission of piracy, one shilling and one 
penny halfpenny; accusation, ninepence; sentence, one shilling and tenpence 
halfpenny. The marshal had five shillings and ninepence per day for keeping 
a ship, and tenpence halfpenny for a person, with same for supplying him with 
one pound of flesh and two pounds of bread ; hanging pirate, fourteen shill- 
ings and twopence. 



Bench and Bar. 



209 



A system of appeals in civil causes was provided for all these tribunals. 
The appeal from the decrees of the governor sitting in chancery has already 
been mentioned. It lay from the chancellor to the king, where the amount 
involved was over iJ^500. The appeal from the Inferior or Justice Courts to the 
General Court has also been mentioned, as lying when the debt or damage in 
question was over forty shillings. 

An appeal lay from the General Court to the governor and council, sitting 
as a Court of Error, in any cause where the sum involved exceeded .;^300, or 
where any duty payable to the crown or any fee of office, annual rent, or other 
such matter which might determine rights in future, was involved. The ap- 
pellant was to enter his appeal in fourteen days after rendition of the judgment 
complained of, and give good security for prosecuting his appeal effectually 
and payment of the eventual condemnation money and all costs and damages 
assessed against him by the appellate court. On this being done, the governor 
issued a writ of error to the General Court, the form whereof was as follows : 
" Georgia : 

" George the Third, by the grace of GoD, of Great Britain, France, and 
Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth : To our trusty and well 
beloved Anthony Stokes, Barrister at Law, our Chief Justice of our Province 
of Georgia, Greeting, Whereas by our fifty-second instruction to our Governor 
and Commander-in-Chief of our said Province or Colony of Georgia, we have 
thought fit to authorize him, or the commander-in-chief of our said Province 
for the time being, to permit and allow appeals from any of the Courts of 
Common Law. in our said Colony, and to issue a writ for that purpose return- 
able before him, and the Council of our said Colony ; provided that in all such 
appeals the value exceeds the sum of three hundred pounds sterling, and that 
security be first duly given by the Appellant, to answer such charges as shall 
be awarded m case the first sentence be affirmed, as in the said in part re- 
cited instruction is more fully contained. And Whereas Richard Roe, of our 
said Province of Georgia, Esquire, hath by his petition alleged that in the rec- 
ord and process, and also in the giving of judgment of the Plaint, which was- 
in our General Court of our said Province of Georgia, before you the said An- 
thony Stokes, our Chief Justice of our said Province of Georgia, and your fel- 
lows, our Justices of our said General Court, by our writ, between John Doe 
(on the demise of Matthew Stiles) and the aforesaid Richard Roe, of a certain 
trespass and ejectment of farm, manifest error hath intervened to the great 
damage of him the said Richard Roe, as we from his complaint are informed. 
And whereas by the affidavit of the said Richard Roe made before you, our 
said Chief Justice, it is alleged that the premises mentioned in the declaration 
filed in the cause aforesaid, with the improvements, are worth five hundred 
pounds, lawful money of our said Province: We, therefore, being willing that 
the error, if any there be, should be corrected in due manner, and that full and 



2 10 History of Au(;usta. 



speedy justice should be done to the parties in this behalf, do command j^ou 
that, if judgment thereof be given, then (on the said Richard Roe's giving 
before you such security as by our said in part recited instruction is directed) 
the record and process of the plaint aforesaid, with all things concerning them, 
to his Excellency, our trusty and well beloved Sir James Wright, Baronet, our 
Captain, General and Governor- in- Chief in and over our said Province of 
Georgia, and Chancellor, Vice-Admiral, and" Ordinary of the same; and the 
Honorable Council of our said Province, under your seal, to wit: on the .... 

day of next ensuing, distinctly and openly you send, and this writ ; 

that the record and process aforesaid being inspected, our said Governor, with 
the assent of our said Council, may further cause to be done therein for cor- 
recting that error what of right and according to the law and custom of P3ng- 
land, in force in our said Province of Georgia, ought to be done. Witness our 
said Governor in -Chief of our said Province, in Council, at Savannah, the .... 
day of in the fifteenth year of our reign. Jas. Wright. 

" By His Excellency's Command, ) C Great Seal ) 

"A. B., Clerk of the Council. ) ( of Georgia ) 

On the return of the writ the cause was heard before the governor and 
council, but no councillor who had presided as judge at the rendering of the 
judgment under review was competent to sit, though allowed to attend and 
give in his reasons for rendering the same. 

From the judgment of the governor and council an appeal lay to the crown, 
if the matter in dispute was ;^500 in value, or touched questions of general 
import as above stated, the royal revenue, office fees, etc. The appeal from 
the Court of Errors to the crown was to be made in fourteen days, and security 
was to be given as before, for the eventual condemnation money, costs, and 
damages. The papers were to be transmitted and the appeal pressed within 
one year from time of entering the same in the Colonial Court. The governor 
and council when sitting on appeals were styled the Court of P>rors. 

In criminal causes there was no writ of error, but the governor could par- 
don all offenses save treason or murder, and in those could reprieve till the 
pleasure of the crown was known. He could also remit all fines imposed for 
misdemeanors, and if the fine was ;^200 or over, his refusal to remit could be 
carried by appeal to the crown. 

From the vice admiralty an appeal lay, of right, to the crown, where the 
sum in question was ;^500 or over; if under that value the defendant had the 
right to petition the crown for leave to appeal ; on which leave, if granted, an 
appeal could be entered on giving the usual security. This given, an order in 
council was made directing the Vice-Admiralty Court to furnish the petitioner 
with a certified transcript of the record of the cause. 

It but remains to speak of the Colonial Bar. The practitioners in the West 
India Islands had a much higher reputation in the profession than those of the 



Bench and Bar. 211 



continental colonies, one reason given being that the sugar planialions of the- 
fornier were enormously valuable, while tiie landed interests of the latter were 
of much less importance. In Georgia the offices of counsel and attorney were 
united, and three classes of lawyers were known, first, those who had beeni 
regularly called to the inns of court in London ; these, on producing certificates^ 
were at once admitted to practice ; secondly, those who had served clerkships- 
in Great Britain, Ireland, or the colonies; and thirdly, those who, through in- 
terest, were admitted to the bar without such preliminary training; these, in' 
the language of the times, being said "to turn lawyers." The practice in 
Georgia was good, so much so that it was complained that the attorneys were 
so busy using what small knowledge they begun with as not to have leisure to 
acquire any more. Chief Justice Stokes inveighs against the haste and care- 
lessness of his bar, and such of the Carolina attorneys as came before him, in- 
stancing in particular that they would annex the several sheets of their inden- 
tures hind side before. This was probably the more distasteful to him, as he 
was himself a barrister, trained to all the nicety of Westminster Hall. The 
attorney's fee bill has these, among other items: Retaining fee, seven shillings- 
and a penny ; warrant of attorney, ninepence ; every attendance necessary in. 
the cause, one shilling and fivepence ; filing writ and signing same, two shill- 
ings and twopence ; copy of writ and notice, one shilling and fivepence ; if 
long and special, three shillings; drawing declaration plea, replication, rejoin- 
der, demurrer, rejoinder in demurrer, or other pleading, two shillings and ten- 
pence ; and, if special, double ; rule to plead, for trial, or other common rule, 
ninepence ; brief, three shillings and sixpence ; court fee, not exceeding twO' 
courts, three shillings and sevenpence ; pleading fee, seven shillings and a 
penny; "the attorney to pay the petit jury in every cause tried or enquiry 
executed, three shillings and sevenpence"; drawing judgment, one shilling 

and tenpence halfpenny; fee on ending cause, same; at which last item 

the client's heart must have leaped with joy, the bill being of formidable length 
and exceedingly "special." 

Such, then was the judicial establishment of Georgia under the colonial 
government. It is readily seen to have been the germ of the existing system. 
Our Superior Courts, Courts of Ordinary, Justice Courts, the old Inferior Court, 
our Georgia Militia District as the basis of the territorial jurisdiction of the 
courts, our system of appeals, are directly descended, name and thing, from 

" , the good old Colony times. 

When we lived under the King." 

The form, and pomp, and style and circumstance of that day were wonder- 
ful. It was the era of huge seals, fine robes and high sounding titles. The- 
Colonial seal was of silver, and had on one side a figure, supposed to represent 
the genius of the Colony, offering a skein of silk to his majesty — it being then 
thought that the province was destined to become a silk raising country — withj 
the inscriptions, Hinc laiidem sperate Coloni (Find ye Colonists, your glory- 



212 History of Augusta. 



here), and Sigi//uni Provincicc nostra: Georgice in America (The seal of our 
Province of Georgia in America). On the obverse were the royal arms and 
the inscription: Georgius II., Dei Gratia Magna' Brittanice Fr. et Hib. Rex 
Fidei Defensor, Bt'unswici et Lunenbergi Dux Saeri Romani Imperii Archi 
Thesaurarius et Elector ; or, George II., by the Grace of God, King of Great 
Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Duke of Brunswick and 
Luncnberg, of the Holy Roman Empire, Arch-Treasurer and Elector. 

A stand of the colonial colors cost £T)0 sterling ; and the robes and mace 
of Mr. Speaker, with a gown for the clerk of the Commons, cost £iSO. By 
way of comparison it may be here noted that Rev. Mr. Ellington, at this time 
minister of St. Paul's at Augusta, received from the treasury a salary of but 
£\^ per year. 

Rank and precedency were jealously guarded by set rules which have been 
preser\ed and may here be reproduced : 

" Rules of precedency coniparecl and adjusted from the several acts and statutes made and 
provided in England for the settlement of the precedency of men and women in America, by 
Joseph Edmonson Mowbray, Herald." 



Baronets, their wives. 
His Majesty's Attorney-General, his wife. 
Judge of the Admiralty, his wife. 
Secretary of the Province, his wife. 
Members of the Commons House of Assem- 
bly, their wives. 
Mayor, his wife. 
Aldermen, their wives. 



Governor of the Province, his wife. 
Lieutenant-Governor, his wife. 
President of the Council, his wife. 
Members of His Majesty's Council, their wives 
Speaker of the Commons House of Assem- 
bly, his wife. 
Chief Justice, his wife. 
Treasurer, his wife. 
Associate Judges, their wives. 

Beneath all the pomp and circumstance of the colonial establishment lay a 
wise, fairly proportioned and justly distributed form of government, the main 
and substantial features whereof, especially in the judicial department, yet re- 
main. Under that establishment were reared a number of lawyers who, de- 
spite the chief justice's criticism, a criticism possibly tinged with the acerbity 
of the times, well understood the principles of the British constitution and the 
rules of the English common law. Out of their ranks came, as we shall see, 
some of the ablest champions of the cause of independence ; and, when the vic- 
tory was won, the retention by their influence ot the substance of the old judi- 
cial regime, is the best testimony to its inherent worth. 



Bench and Bar 213 



CHAPTER XX. 

BENCH AND BAR CONTINUED. 

The Judicial Establishment of 1776— Constitution of 1777— The Superior Court— Judi- 
ciary Act of 1778— Reopening of the Courts in 1782— Judiciary Act of 1789— Two Circuits- 
Chief Justice Glen— Judge Few— Chief Justices Glen, Stephens and Wereat— Chief Justice 
George Walton -Chief Justice Osborne— Richmond Superior Court in 1787— Benefit of Clergy 
—Branding and the Pillory— Grand Jury Presentments— Chief Justice Pendleton. 

IN April. 1776, opposition to the royal authority in Georgia had progressed 
so far that the Provincial Congress formed a provisional government for the 
province, until other measures could be concerted. This instrument provided 
for the election of a president and commander- in chief and a council of safety 
of thirteen by the congress, and further directed as follows: 

"That all the laws, whether common or statute, and the Acts of Assembly 
which have formerly been acknowledged to be of force in this Province, and 
which do not interfere with the proceedings of the Continental or our Provin- 
cial Congresses, and also all and singular the resolves and recommendations of 
the said Continental and Provincial Congress, shall be of full force, validity and 
effect until otherwise ordered. 

"That there shall be a Chief Justice and two assistant judges, an attorney- 
general, a provost-marshal and clerk of the Court of Sessions, appointed by 
Ijallot, to serve during the pleasure of the Congress. The Court of Sessions or 
Oyer and Terminer, shall be opened and held on the second Tuesday in June 
and December, and the former rules and methods of proceeding, as nearly as 
may be, shall be observed in regard to summoning of juries, and all other cases 
whatsoever. 

"That the President and Commander-in-chief with the advice of the Coun- 
cil, shall appoint magistrates to act during pleasure in the several parishes 
throughout this Province, and such magistrates shall conform themselves, as 
nearly as may be, to the old established forms and methods of proceedings." 

Archibald Bullock was elected president of the province and John Glen 
chief justice. By the proceedings of the congress it appears that almost all the 
magistrates in the province had refused to act, "whereby all judicial powers are 
become totally suspended, to the great danger of persons and property"— a 
state of things which evidently led to the judicial reorganization, so to speak, 
embodied in the provisional constitution Under this instrument the affairs of 
the province were administered until on February 5, 1777, a regular State Con- 
stitution was adopted. By this a court to be called the Superior Court, was 
established in each county; it was to consist of the chief justice and three or 
more of the justices resident in the county; it had jurisdiction of all manner 



2 14 History of Augusta. 



of causes, except admiralty; was to sit twice in each year; no cause was to- 
depend therein more than two terms, nor were the costs in any action to ex- 
ceed three pounds. In civil causes, either litigant dissatisfied with the verdict 
of the jury might appeal therefrom in three days to a special jury whose deter- 
mination was final. The special jury was selected as follows: the plaintiff and 
defendant each chose six ; six more names were taken at random out of a box 
provided for that purpose ; the whole eighteen were summoned and ail their 
names put in the box, and the first twelve drawn were the jury. The special 
jury were sworn "to bring in a verdict according to law and the opinion they 
entertain of the evidence, provided it be not repugnant to justice, equity and 
conscience and the rules and regulations contained in the constitution, of which 
they shall judge." The special jury was the old Colonial Court of Errors and 
the King in Council. A register of probates for proving wills and granting let- 
ters of administration was to be appointed by the legislature in each county. 
The Courts of Conscience or Justice Courts, were continued as theretofore 
practiced, but their jurisdiction was extended to ten pounds. Admiralty causes 
were triable in a special court called by the chief justice in the county where 
the same might arise, with an appeal Irom one jury to another as in the Supe- 
rior Court, and an appeal from the special jury to the Continental Congress. 
No person was allowed to plead as attorney unless authorized so to do by the 
Legislature. All civil causes were to be tried in the county of the defend- 
ant's residence, except in cases involving title to land which were triable in the 
county where the land lay. The parishes were formed into counties, the par- 
ish of St. Paul becoming Richmond county, so called after the Duke of Rich- 
mond, a friend of American independence. The Superior Court in Richmond 
was to meet on the fourth Tuesday in March and October. 

In 1778 there was passed " An act for opening and regulating the Superior 
Courts in the several counties of this State, and for the more convenient ad- 
ministration of justice in the same, agreeable to the Constitution thereof," which 
made provision for the Superior Courts of the counties of Chatham, Liberty, 
Effingham, Burke, Richmond, and Wilkes, there being at this time but eight 
counties in the State, to wit: those just named and Camden and Glynn. In 
each county four justices of the peace were named — those for Richmond being 
John Walton, James McFarland, Dionysius Wright, and William Few — and 
these were made " assistant and associate judges," and, with the chief justice 
were to hold the Superior Court, and " have cognizance of all pleas civil and 
criminal, and of all causes of what nature and kind soever, according to the 
custom and usage of courts of law and equity." The jurisdiction of the court 
on the law side extended to all cases where the amount involved was over £ 10, 
or where title to land was involved, or in appeals from the register of probates. 
It is also likely, though not so expressly stated, that it had cognizance of ap- 
peals from the courts of conscience, the constitution of 1777 providing that 



Bench and Bar. 215 



those tribunals should " be continued as heretofore practiced," and there hav- 
ing been an appeal from them to the General Court under the colonial estab- 
lishment in cases involving over forty shillings, as we have seen. The petition 
was to " contain the plaintiff's charge, complaint, allegation, or demand plainly 
and distinctly set forth, and be signed by the party or his attorney." All 
writs were to be tested by the chief justice or senior assistant judge of the 
county, directed to " all and singular the sheriffs of this State," and made re- 
turnable twenty days before the first setting of the court. The writ and a copy 
of the petition were to be served by the sheriff or his deputy on the defendant 
personally, or by leaving the same at his " usual and notorious place of abode," 
twenty days before court. The court was to award judgment according to the 
verdict of the jury, and award execution thereof within ten days thereafter. 
The court fees, or costs, were : to the chief justice, or, in his absence, the 
senior presiding associate, fifteen shillings ; the attorney, one pound ; the clerk 
and sheriff, each, ten shillings. If the execution were levied, the sheriff had : 
levy, ten shillings ; mileage, fourpence a mile ; commissions on sale, five per 
cent; making conveyance, one pound. 

No one was a competent traverse juror unless a freeholder, that is, seized 
in his own right, in fee simple, fee tail, or for life, of fifty acres of land ; or a 
householder, seized, in like manner, of a town lot. No one was a competent 
grand juror unless seized of a like estate of not less than two hundred and fifty 
acres of land, or in the commission of the peace, and the associate justices were 
to annually go over the list of those so qualified and select the " most able and 
•discreet" thereof as grand jurors. A jury box was to be provided with four 
compartments, numbered respectively one, two, three, and four, and the names 
of the grand jurors written on separate pieces of paper, were to be placed in 
No. I, and of the traverse jurors in No. 3. On the last day of the term, in the 
presence of one of the associate judges and the clerk, some indifferent person 
was to draw out of No. i the names of thirty-six persons to serve as grand 
jurors at the next term, the slips to be then deposited in No. 2. Out of No. 
3 were to be drawn thirty-six as petit jurors, the slips, as drawn, to be depos- 
ited in No. 4. When Nos. 2 and 4 were exhausted, the drawing was reversed 
back to Nos. i and 3. The clerk then entered the names on his minutes, and 
the sheriff delivered the jurors a precept ten days before court. From the 
petit jurors the act provided that " a jury shall be balloted and drawn for 
every cause, in like manner as has hitherto been used and accustomed in the 
courts of law in this State." That method no doubt was that of the English 
courts, where the names of the jurors were written on tickets which were then 
put in a box and shaken ; and the twelve first drawn were the jury, unless 
challenged. " Ministers of the several churches, or of any dissenting congre- 
gations, members of the executive council or house of assembly ; sworn attor- 
neys, physicians, surgeons, apothecaries, mad men, idiots, and sick persons," 
were exempt from jury duty. 



2i6 • History of Augusta. 



Where a caveat was filed before the register of probate either party might 
appeal from the determination thereon in four days, whereupon in ten days 
thereafter the associate judges were to meet and pass on the appeal, an appeal 
lying from their judgment to the Superior Court. 

On the criminal side the court had cognizance of all offenses, and in capital 
cases could respite for thirty days after sentence. If the attorney general did 
not attend co prepare and prosecute indictments, the court appointed " any 
barrister or attorney at law, or other fit person," so to do. 

On the equity side of the court it was provided " That where any case 
which may be, or heretofore was cognizable in a court of equity shall happen, 
the same shall be introduced by way of petition to the Superior Court of each 
county, as the case may require, which court is empowered to determine finally 
on all such cases as courts of equity have heretofore usually done." 

In the same year, 1778, it was enacted that "all laws heretofore made in 
the then province, now State, of Georgia, and not repealed, and all the laws of 
England, as well statute as common, and heretofore used and adopted in the 
courts of law of the then province, now State, of Georgia, and which were used 
and of force at the time of the Revolution, shall be of full force, virtue, and 
effect, to all intents and purposes as were heretofore had and used, as the law 
of the land, any law, usage, custom, article, matter or thing at present adopted 
in a change of government to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding, so far 
as the same do not contradict, weaken, hurt, or interfere with the resolves and 
regulations of the honorable the Continental Congress or any resolve or regu- 
lation of this or any former assembly, congress, or convention held in and for 
this State, and in particular the constitution of the same." 

Inter anna cessant leges, however, and the fury of war soon closed the 
courts and silenced the voice of justice until in 1782 the British withdrew from 
the State. In the interim a State and a King's Assembly held alternate sway, 
and as each gained ascendancy, thundered forth acts of attainder against the 
adherents of the other. The State attainted Sir James Wright, Chief Justice 
Stokes, and other loyalists, and confiscated their estates, appointing commis- 
sioners in the several counties to bring such estates to the hammer, the com- 
missioners for Richmond being Robert Walton, Seth John Cuthbert, Benjamin 
Few, William Glascock, John Walton, and William Jackson. The King's As- 
sembly retorted with an act disqualifying from any office under the crown Gov- 
ernor Houstoun, Chief Justice Glen, Seth John Cuthbert, rebel major; William 
Glascock, rebel councillor; Robert Walton, rebel commissioner; Dionysius 
Wright, rebel judge, and many others, kindly offering to rehabilitate them on 
their giving security to be of good behavior, or serving " his majesty as a pri- 
vate soldier for and during the continuance of the present American rebellion ;" 
otherwise, when caught, " to be impressed and carried into his majesty's sea 
service." 



Bench and Bar 217 



In 1782, on the cessation of hostilities, the courts were ordered to be opened 
and, in order to simplify the practice, it was enacted "that in all cases whatso- 
ever, demurrers, special pleas in abatement, and all unnecessary prolixity and 
nicety shall as much as possible be discouraged by the several courts within 
this State ; the general issue shall be usually plead, and all matters of fact 
which go to the merits of the dispute, and are for the advancement of justice 
between the parties at variance shall be allowed to be given in evidence under 
the said plea, though not coming within the strict rules of former practice ; and 
in every case it shall be at the discretion of the court to admit parties to avail 
themselves of substantial advantages as w^ell by motion as if the same had been 
brought on by a formal plea." 

From the same act we learn that the courts of conscience held monthly 
sessions with jurisdiction up to forty shillings, and quarterly terms for causes 
of from forty shillings to ten pounds in value. 

In 1789 the State was divided into two judicial districts, called respectively 
the eastern and western, the counties of Camden, Glynn, Liberty, Chatham, 
Effingham, and Burke composing the former; and Washington, Greene, Frank- 
lin, Wilkes, and Richmond, the latter. It was provided that there should be 
two judges of the Superior court, one for each district. This court had juris- 
diction of all pleas, civil and criminal. In equity causes, the court was to have 
all the powers of a court of equity, referring issues of fact to a special jury. 
•Courts called the Inferior County Courts were established in each county, to 
consist of " the first five justices mentioned in the commission of the peace, or 
any three of them;" to hold quarterly sessions; and have jurisdiction of all civil 
causes, not involving title to land, with a right in defendant to remove any 
cause involving fifty pounds or over to the Superior Court, and an appeal thereto 
in all cases of over five pounds. Justice Courts were also established for the 
trial, without a jury, of cases not involving ov^er five pounds, with right of 
appeal to the Inferior Court. No person was allowed to practice law in the 
Superior or Inferior courts, unless so admitted by the Superior Court, after ex- 
amination in open court. This act makes many rules of practice in the several 
courts thereby established, and may be regarded as the original Judiciary Act 
of this State. In 1791, 1792, 1793, 1796, 1797, and 1799 other acts of like 
general tenor were passed, the last named whereof is ordinarily known as the 
Judiciary Act, but the basis of our present judiciary establishment is marked 
out in that of 1789. Having progressed this far, we may compare the Colonial 
with the State establishment. In the colony the royal governor was the 
chancellor, the ordinary, and the judge in admiralty; the General Court was 
the court of common law jurisdition, having the powers of King's Bench, Com- 
mon Pleas, and Exchequer. The Inferior Court was a county court as to its 
quarterly sessions and a Justice Court at its monthly terms. An appeal lay 
from the Inferior Court to the General Court, and from the General Court to 

28 



2i8 History of Augusta. 



the governor and council sitting as a Court of Errors. From the Chancery 
and Admiralty an appeal lay to the crown. 

The present judicial establishment of Georgia is this: Admiralty jurisdic- 
tion is vested in the Federal Courts, pursuant to the Constitution of the United 
States. The powers of the General Court and of the Royal governor as chan- 
cellor are vested in the Superior Court which is King's Bench, Common Pleas, 
Exchequer, and Chancery. The powers of the King's governor as ordinary 
are vested in the Court of Ordinary, the State after first reposing them in a 
register of probates and afterwards in the Inferior Court, finally returning to 
the original name and style. The County Court has a jurisdiction subordinate 
to the Superior Court, and the Justice Courts, still sitting monthly, one less 
than the County Court. From the Court of Ordinary, County Court, and 
Justice Court an appeal lies to the Superior Court, and from that to the Su- 
preme Court, our Court of Errors, The harmony and proportions are essen- 
tially the same, and justify the assertion that Sir James Wright and Chief Jus- 
tice Stokes laid in their time the basis of a legal structure which has stood the 
test of over a hundred years. 

Coming now to Augusta, it must be borne in mind that the county of 
Richmond was originally of great extent, reaching from McBean Creek to 
Little River on the northwest and to the Ogeechee on the southwest, thus 
necessitating a court-house at some central point. At the outbreak of the 
Revolution it was at Brownsborough, but in 1780 was established at Augusta 
for and during the war. In 1784 it was located "at the place where the road 
crosses the Little Kioka Creek, leading to the meeting-house;" and in 1790. by 
the act which cut off Columbia county, was fixed at Augusta, where it has 
since remained. 

Of the judges who have presided and the lawyers who have practiced in 
Richmond county in bygone days, it now remains to speak 

From 1777 until 1790, the Superior Courts were held, as we have seen, in 
each county by the chief justice of the State and the justices of the peace in 
that county as associate or assistant judges. As organized in 177S, the Su- 
perior Court of Richmond county was to be held by John Glen, chief justice, 
and John Walton, James McFarland, Dionysius Wright, and William Few, 
assistant judges, but no record remains of any session. Augusta was the 
scene of sanguinary hostilites for several years succeeding this date, and not 
until late in the year 1782 was the usual course of justice restored and the 
courts reopened. We find that in 1780 William Stephens was chief justice^ 
and in 1781 John Wereat, and that, in 1782, a session of the Superior Court 
of Richmond was held, but it does not appear who was then chief justice. In 
1783 George Walton was chief justice ; after him Henry Osborne ; and in 1789 
Nathaniel Pendleton who appears to have remained such until the above men- 
tioned act of 1789 went into effect, which did away with the system of a chief 



Bench and Bar. 219 



justice and assistant judges presiding in the Superior Courts, and supplied 
their places with one Superior Court judge. From 1790, when this change 
took place, we have a complete court roll of the judges presiding in Augusta; 
but before speaking of them, will give such information as is obtainable in 
reference to the system under the chief justices. John Glen, first chief jus- 
tice of the State, was a resident of Savannah, and early in 1775 was chairman 
of the first Provincial congress called in Georgia to concert measures of union 
with the other colonies in opposition to the crown, and in 1796 judge of the 
Superior Courts of the Eastern Circuit. John Walton was a delegate from 
Richmond to the second provincial congress, and was one of the committee 
appointed by that body to memoralize the royal governor. Sir James Wright, 
in the interests of the liberties of the subject, the memorial stating that the 
objects of the congress were "a reconciliation with our parent State on con- 
stitutional principles, as well as to endeavor to preserve the peace and good 
order of the province." Mr. John Walton was also a delegate to the Conti- 
nental Congress in 1778, and signed the Articles of Confederation. Dionysius 
Wright was a planter in Richmond, and one of the prominent Americans em- 
braced by name in the British Disquahfication Act. William Few, the other 
associate judge with Chief Justice Glen, was long and honorably prominent in 
Georgia affairs. His father was one of the original settlers of Pennsylvania, 
coming over with Penn, and in 1776 the son removed to Georgia, and settled 
at Augusta. Here he at once attained prominence, and was sent as a delegate 
to the convention which framed the State constitution of 1777. In 1778 he 
guarded the western frontier against the Indians, and afterwards became assist- 
ant judge as above stated; in 1780 was sent as one of the delegates from 
Georgia to the Continental Congress, and again in 1782, 1785, 1786, and 1788. 
On the conclusion of peace he began to practice law in Augusta, and in 1787 
was a delegate to the convention framing the Constitution of the United States, 
as also the Georgia Convention which adopted it at Augusta on January 2, 
1788. On the inauguration of the government under the constitution, Mr. 
Few was elected United States senator and served in that body till 1793. In 
1796 he was appointed judge of the Superior Court of the Middle Circuit, 
which included Augusta, and served in that capacity till 1799, when for the 
benefit of his health, he removed to New York. Of that city he was chosen 
mayor, and died there, after a long life of activity and honor, in 1828. 

William Stephens, the second chief justice, was the son of William Stephens, 
who was governor of Georgia in 1743 under the regime of the Trustees, suc- 
ceeding General Oglethorpe in that office. Chief Justice Stephens was clerk 
of the Commons House of Assembly under the royal government, and the 
first attorney-general of the State. From 1796 to 1798 he was judge of the 
Superior Courts of the Eastern Circuit, and afterwards United States district 
judge of Georgia. 



220 History of Augusta. 



Chief Justice John Wereat was the president of the Provincial Congress of 
1776; was Governor in 1778; and president of the convention which ratified 
the Constitution of the United States in 1788. Me was a man of considerable 
financial ability, which proved of great assistance to the State in its struggle; 
and was noted for his kindness to the people about Augusta. The close of 
the Revolution found them distressed, impoverished, and almost starving, and 
to relieve them Governor Wereat put all his boats and slaves at work bring- 
ing provisions up the river and continued the good work until their needs were 
supplied. 

Chief justice George Walton was a central figure in the history of this 
period. He was born in Virginia in 1740, and early developed that tliirst for 
learning which is the precursor of influence and renown. As a lad he was 
apprenticed to a carpenter who thought it extravagance to allow his apprentice 
a candle to read by at night, but the young scholar, gathering lightwood, pur- 
sued his studies by the light of his fire. After his indentures were out he re- 
moved to Georgia, studietl law, and in 1773 was admitted as a solicitor in 
Chancery. At the outbreak of the Revolution he at once took the patriot 
side and labored assiduously to have Georgia unite with her sister colonies in 
opposition to the crown. He was one of the committee to prepare an address 
from Georgia to the other colonies; was president of the Council of Safety, 
and in 1776 was sent as a delegate to the Continental Congress where, on July 
4, he signed the Declaration of Independence, with Lyman Hall and Button 
Gwinnett, on behalf of Georgia. The same year Congress appointed him, 
together with Robert Morris, the celebrated financier of the Revolution, and 
George Clymer, of Pennsylvania, a special committee to attend to certain im- 
portant affairs of the United States at Philadelphia, including the fitting out of 
the Continental frigates. In 1777 Congress again placed him on a special 
committee with instructions to distribute $1,000 in presents to the Indians of 
the Six Nations, and secure their good will to the Continental cause. In 1778 
Mr. Walton was again appointed delegate to Congress, but in the latter part 
of that year returned to Georgia and. in the battle of December 29, at Savan- 
nah, commanded a battalion on the American right. In that disastrous defeat, 
he w.is severely wounded and taken prisoner. In 1779 he was exchanged, 
and on his return elected governor. The next year, the governor then being 
appointed annually, he was again sent as a delegate to Congress. In 1783 he 
was made chief justice of Georgia; in 1787, sent as a delegate to the con- 
vention which framed the Constitution of the United States; and in 1789 was 
again elected governor. On the expiration of this term he was made judge 
of the Superior Courts and presided in Richmond in 1790 and 1791. In 1793 
he was again made judge of the Superior Court, and served as such till sent 
to the United States Senate in 1795. In 1799 he was again made judge of 
the Superior Court and sat therein till his death, at Augusta, February 2, 1801. 



Bench and Bar. 221 



Judge Walton was, indeed, part and parcel of his times, and from his long 
continuance in public life, the high stations he held, and his wide and varied 
experience, it is greatly to be regretted that he did not carry out the purpose 
once entertained by him of writing a history of Georgia. His portrait hangs 
on the wall of the Superior Court room in Augusta, and in front of the court 
house stands a granite obelisk erected in his honor and in commemoration of 
his associates. Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall, both governors of Georgia 
like himself, in signing the Declaration of Independence. 

Chief Justice Henry Osborne was a resident of Camden, and like Judge 
Walton, took a prominent part in the Revolutionary struggle. In 1788 he 
was member of the convention which ratified the constitution of the United 
States, but principally appears in the history of those times in a judicial capa- 
city. The minutes of Richmond Superior Court in 1787-9 give a lively 
picture of legal procedure in the days of this chief justice. The presiding 
judges were Henry Osborne, chief justice, and Charles Crawford, James Mc- 
Farland, and James McNeil, assistant judges. The grand jury at March term, 
1787. was Samuel Wilson, William Maddox, Archibald Beal, James Sims, 
David Maxwell, Thomas Pace, David Walker, William Jones, Randal Ramsey, 
jr., Thomas Green, jr., Thomas Hanson, William Winingham, Charles Bost- 
wick, Nathaniel Cocke. Henry Turknett, James Stallings, Anthony Haynes,. 
Solomon Ellis, Joseph Thomas, Samuel Alexander, jr., and Stephen Day. 
The charge to the grand jury was delivered by the chief justice, who reminds 
them that the proper administration of the criminal laws depends on their co- 
operation, and invites their attention to the propriety of an amendment of the 
State constitution. The clerk of court was N. Harris, and Mr. Pendleton, an 
attorney, moves a rule against him for neglect of duty in reference to sum- 
moning jurors and entering a certain appeal. It seems the clerk had sent out 
no venire, and it is not till next day that petit jurors could be obtained, when 
James Tinsley, James Cobb, John Pitman, Jacob Bugg, Isham Bailey, Thomas 
Jones. William Hogg. John Lampkin, Job Jackson, Peleg Rogers, Reuben Bar- 
row, and Samuel Langston appeared. On one day of court the assistant judges 
were Charles Crawford, William Glascock, and Thomas Low. Another day 
no chief justice appears, and the court is held by William Glascock, James Mc- 
Niel, John Cobb, and Henry Allison, assistant judges. It seems to have been 
the practice for any of the justices of the peace to come in and sit as assistant 
judges or depart at pleasure, and that the presence of the chief justice was not 
indispensable, provided as many as three judges occupied the bench. The at- 
torneys whose names appear at this period are Nathaniel Pendleton, William 
Stith, Seaborn Jones, William Few, and Abraham Baldwin. A few terms later 
T. P. Carnes, Robert Watkins. P. Carnes, C. Jackson, Dickinson, Sullivan, 
Robert Porter, Huntington, and Williamson appear. Verdicts for consider- 
able amounts were not uncommon, but there was an appeal in almost every 



222 History of Augusta. 



litigated cause. One case will show the practice: plaintiff has a verdict for 
;^28i I IS. 3d. 3f , and Jones, for defendant, moves an appeal; defendant brings 
in his sureties, and the clerk tests the bond. The entire record of the appeal 
is placed on the minutes, but does not exceed ten lines. Many judgments are 
confessed, and appeals dismissed for want of prosecution. Once an appellant 
refuses to prosecute his appeal and pays cost ; Jones, for appellee, objects and 
insists on a trial. Unanimously overruled. The bar moves the court for in- 
structions as to the proper manner of appealing from the Inferior to the Supe- 
rior Court. The court answers that the procedure is to be the same as governs 
an appeal from one jury to another in the Superior Court. The reference of 
cases to arbitration is a common feature. The confusion and depreciation of 
currency during the Revolution made it difficult very often to ascertain the 
true amount due in specie, and these references were made in order that the 
computations, often complicated, could be properly made. To obtain the tes- 
timony of non-resident witnesses, a rule was moved and order made that the 
other side should have so many days notice, and that the interrogatories should 
be received as evidence. A defaulting juror is fined ;i^iOO; and we find ap- 
peals from the Courts of Conscience. Five of these courts were held in the 
county, and their respective jurisdictional limits, and the places at which the 
court was to be held are specified in an order of court, namely, district No. i, 
at Augusta; No. 2, at Richmond Court House; No. 3, at Brownsborough ; 
No. 4, at Wrightsborough ; and No. 5, at Rocky Comfort. 

One case seems to have attracted considerable attention. Ogilvie vs. Telfair 
and Kelsall, executors, Pendleton appearing for the plaintiff and Jones for de- 
fendants. Plaintiff moved a rule for defendants to show cause why execution 
should not issue on a judgment for ;^6.ooo obtained by him against them in 
the General Court of the then province, now State, of Georgia, in 1775. De- 
fendants plead 7i?d tiel record, or that there was no record of such a judgment, 
and for further plea, that if there ever had been such debt it had been confis- 
cated by the sequestration act of the State, plaintiff having adhered to the 
crown in the Revolutionary struggle. Plaintiff replied that his judgment was 
of record, and that by the treaty of peace between the United States and his 
Britannic majesty it was stipulated that creditors on either side should have no 
impediment in the way of collecting their debts. Defendants rejoined that 
said treaty did not extend to the judgment in question, the same having been 
sequestered before the peace, and was therefore no debt due plaintiff. Chief 
Justice Osborne delivered the opinion. Oyer, he said, had been had of the 
record produced, and, on inspection, it was. nothing more than a transcript from 
the books of the provost-marshal before the Revolution, and this was not, in 
the opinion of the court, a sufficient record to prove a judgment. Moreover, it 
was matter of notoriety that the records of the prothonotary's office had been 
<:arried away by the British in 1778, and plaintiff being a British subject, could, 
and should have produced the record, wherefore judgment for defendants. 



Bench and Bar. 22^ 



On the criminal side of the court we see the common law in full operation. 
One Robert Parish is indicted for murder, but there seems to have been con- 
siderable diversity of opinion in his case, the bill being brought in with the 
entry " 14 say a true bill." Being put upon trial, the jury find that, according 
to the technical state of the law, he is guilty of manslaughter, but recommend 
lenity to the court. The judgment we give verbatim : 

" And it is demanded of the said Robert Parish if he hath or knoweth any- 
thing to say wherefore the said judges here ought not upon the premises and 
verdict aforesaid to proceed to judgment and execution against him, who saith 
he is a clerk and prayeth the Benefit of Clergy; when, all and singular the pre- 
mises being seen and by the said judges understood : It is Considered by the 
Court here that the said Robert Parish be burned in his left hand and deliv- 
ered, and immediately he is burned in his left hand and delivered according 
to the form of the statute. Henry OSBORNE. 

" 19 Jan., 1788." 

Another convict does not fare so well. Being found guilty of horse steal- 
ing, he is sentenced to stand in the pillory two hours, and then to be publicly 
whipped on his bare back on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, thirty-nine 
lashes each time, and then to be branded on the left shoulder with the letter 
" R," and be discharged. 

Another fellow, a cow stealer, is sentenced to two hours in the pillory, a 
whipping of thirty-nine lashes on Tuesday and Wednesday, then six months' 
confinement in jail, with a flogging at the market-house in Augusta on the last 
Saturday of his imprisonment ; to be branded " R " on the shoulder, and dis- 
charged. 

With all this, the grand jury presents as a grievance the lenity of the law 
toward horse and cattle thieves, and says the punishment should be death, 
unless recommended to mercy. It further complains of the non- enforcement 
of the laws by justices of the peace, particularly in the article of tippling- houses, 
gambling, and profane swearing, and says that " many fall into these vices 
their duty compel them to punish in others." It presents the inhuman prac- 
tice of dueling as being then rampant and fashionable ; it declares the estray 
laws " little better than robbery," and presents divers persons by name for 
overcharging for liquor (the law then fixing a tariff for publicans), and one for 
having " a ball-battery," probably ten-pins. It presents as a grievance that 
the Legislature will sit for the transaction of public business on Sunday, in de- 
fiance of previous presentments, and declares all the surplus paper money should 
be destroyed. Each grand juror signs his name in full and affixes his seal 
thereto. 

Chief Justice Nathaniel Pendleton, the last of the State's chief justices of 
this era, was admitted to the bar in 1785, and in 1787 was one of the delegates 
of Georgia to the convention which framed the Constitution of the United 



2 24 History of Augusta. 



States. In 1789 he was appointed cliief justice of Georgia. In the next year 
the system of liaving a chief justice for the whole State to preside in the Su- 
perior Court of each county in rotation with the resident magistrates as his as- 
sociates was abandoned. The State was divided into two judicial districts and 
two judges were appointed to hold the Superior Courts therein. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

BENCH AND HAR CONTINUED. 

Augusta's Early Bar — Abraham Baldwin — Governor John Milledge — Governor Telfair 
— William H. Crawford -- Robert Watkins — T. P. and W J. Carnes — Silken Robes — Rob- 
ert Raymond Reid — Pathos .and Humor — His Bar Dinner — Freeman Walker — John P. 
King — Nicholas Ware — John Forsyth. 
< 

AMONG the lawyers of this period, Abraham Baldwin occtipies a promi- 
nent place. He was born in Connecticut in 1754, graduated at Vale in 
1772, was for some time a professor in that renowned college, and served as a 
chaplain in the Continental army. After the war he studied law and removed 
to Georgia, and was admitted to the bar in 1784. In 1785 he was sent as a 
delegate to the Continental Congress and from this time to his death in 1807 
was continually in public life. He served in the convention framing the con- 
stitution of the United States, and, with William Few, signed that instrument 
for Georgia. In the Continental Congress he was one of the three commis- 
sioners to settle the accounts of the States, and in 1788 we find him offering a 
resolution, which was adopted, recommending the States to pass laws prevent- 
ing the transportation of convicted malefactors from foreign countries into the 
United States, Georgia having passed such an act in 1787. On the organiza- 
tion of the government of the United States, Mr. Baldwin was sent to Con- 
gress and served a number of terms. In 1799 he was made United States 
senator, and remained such till his death in 1807. 

John Milledge was the son of John Milledge, one of the original settlers of 
Georgia, who came over with General Oglethorpe, and was a trusted friend and 
companion of the founder of Georgia. He was born in Savannah in 1757, 
and was given the best education the colony afforded, and then placed in the 
office. of the attorney-general to pursue the study of law. Mr. Milledge was 
an ardent patriot, sided with the colonists from the outset, and was one of 
the party which made Sir James Wright and Chief Justice Stokes prisoners, 
thus overturning the king's government. At the siege of Savannah and at 
the taking of Augusta, Mr. Milledge behaved with great gallantry, and after 
the war became one of the leading men of the day. From 1802 to 1806 he 
-was Governor of Georgia, and on the termination of his last gubernatorial 



Bench and Bar. 221; 



<;erm, in the latter year, was on June 19, 1806. elected to the United States 
Senate to succeed James Jackson, deceased. In 1807 he was re-elected for 
the full term, but resigned in November, 1809, and died at his residence near 
Augusta in 1818. In 1802 Governor Milledge was one of the commissioners, 
James Jackson and Abraham Baldwin being his associates, to negotiate the 
cession of Georgia's western territory to the United States. He was particu- 
larly and especially the friend of the State University, urged the importance 
of such an institution, and when the State had no land available for a site in a 
desirable location, purchased a tract him.self at a cost of $4,000 and generous- 
ly donated it to the college. On this land much of Athens is built. In 1808 
President Meigs, of the university, wrote Governor Milledge: "Your institu- 
tion has taken a strong root, and will flourish; and I feel some degree of 
pride in reflecting that a century hence, when this nascent village shall em- 
bosom a thousand of the Georgian youths, pursuing the paths of science, it 
will now and then be said that you gave this land and I was on the forlorn 
hope." 

Governor Milledge was one of the incorporators of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Society of Augusta, chartered in 18 16 by the General Assembly, the in- 
corporators named in the act being John Milledge, John Carter, Valentine 
Walker, George Walton, Thomas Watkins. Richard Tubman. Edward F. Camp- 
bell, Augustin Slaughter. Freeman Walker. Joseph Hutchinson, William M. 
Cowles, Walter Leigh, John A. Barnes. Milledge Golphin, and Patrick Carnes. 
The first Episcopal clergyman in Augusta was Rev. Jonathan Copp who 
labored diligently from 175 i to 1756. In 1758 we find St. Paul's recognized 
as the parish church in Augusta, and some years after Rev. Samuel Prink was 
rector. In 1764 he reports Augusta as having 540 whites, 501 slaves, and 90 
Indians. In 1767 he was succeeded by Rev. Edward Ellington, who served 
until 1770. In 1786, after the turmoil of the Revolution was over, a new St. 
Paul's Church was built on the ruins of the old one burned during the war, 
and Rev. Mr. Boyd was pastor till about the close of the eighteenth century. 
After that no Episcopal Church organization was maintained, until the organ- 
ization of the Protestant Episcopal Society in 18 16 as stated. In 1821, the 
present church was built, and its rectors since have been : Rev. Hugh Smith, 
1819-1832; Rev. Edward Eugene Ford, 1832-1862; Rev. William H. Clark! 
1 862-1 877; Rev. Chauncey C. Williams, the present incumbent, having been 
rector since 1877. 

Soon after Governor Milledge's election to the Senate the State capitol was 
moved from Louisville, in JetTerson county, to a point in Baldwin county, 
which was named Milledgeville in his honor, and here was the seat of the State 
government till removed, in 1868, to Atlanta. 

Edward Telfair, another governor of Georgia, was contemporary with 
Governor Milledge. He was born in Scotland in 1735, the year Augusta was 



226 HiSTt)RV OK Augusta. 

founded, and in 1766 settled in Savannah, where he took a prominent part in 
the Revolutionary struggle. In February, 1778, he was elected to represent 
the State in the Continental Congress, the delegation that year being Lyman 
Hall, George Walton, Joseph Clay, John Walton, Joseph Wood, Edward Lang- 
worthy and Edward Telfair. In 1780 he was again elected to Congress ; and 
again in 1781, 1782 and 1885. With John Walton and Edward Langworthy 
he signed the Articles of Confederation on the part and behalf of the State of 
Georgia. In 1786 he was elected governor of Georgia, and again in 1790, 
serving till 1793. During his latter administration President Washington vis- 
ited Augusta, and was entertained by Governor Telfair. Washington's toast 
was, "The State of Georgia, and prosperity to Augusta." Telfair county is 
named after Governor Telfair. 

William Harris Crawford, United States senator, minister to France, and 
twice a cabinet officer, began his career in Augusta. Mr. Crawford was born 
in Virginia in 1772, and early in life was one of the professors of the Richmond 
Academy. In 1806 he was elected to the United States Senate in place of 
Abraliam Baldwin, deceased, and re-elected in 181 1, but did not fill out this 
latter term. In 18 13 President Madison offered him the appointment of sec- 
retary of war, which he declined. He was then appointed minister to France, 
and on his return in 181 5, became secretary of war. In 18 16 he was appointed 
secretary of the treasury by President Madison, and on the coming in of Presi- 
dent Monroe's administration, was again appointed to that high office. When 
President Monroe was re-elected, Mr. Crawford was again appointed to the 
treasury portfolio, and served till 1825. In 1824 he was voted for, for presi- 
dent, the other candidates being Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and 
Henry Clay, and the electoral vote standing: Jackson, ninety-nine; Adams, 
eighty- four; Crawford, forty-one; and Clay, thirty seven. In those days the 
electors of a State did not always vote as a unit, and Mr. Crawford received 
the following : New York, five ; Delaware, two ; Maryland, one ; Virginia, 
twenty-four; Georgia, nine; total, forty-one. The whole number of electors 
at that time was two hundred and sixty-one, and no candidate receiving a 
majority, the election was thrown into the house, where the vote, by States, 
stood: Adams, thirteen; Jackson, seven ; Crawford, four, thus electing Ad- 
ams. John C. Calhoun having received one hundred and eighty-two votes in 
the electoral college, was chosen vice-president. In 1827 Mr. Crawford was 
elected judge of the Northern Circuit, which office he held until his death in 

1834- 

The early portion of this illustrious career was enveloped in storms. In 

Mr. Crawford's early manhood the immense western landed possessions of 

Georgia made this State a favorite field for speculation. The Yazoo fraud was 

one episode Mr. Crawford's duel with Van Allen was another. Mr. Crawford 

had refused to take a retainer from the land speculators, and fearing his oppo- 



Bench and Bar. 227 



sition at the bar, it was generally believed they instigated *a fiery young gen- 
tleman named Van Allen, of New York, a cousin of President Van Buren, to 
fasten a personal quarrel upon him. Mr. Crawford accepted the challenge and 
Van Allen was killed. 

Later in life Mr. Crawford became involved in another affair with General 
John Clark. The general had preferred charges against Judge Tait, Mr. Craw- 
ford's fellow professor of the Richmond Academy, and Mr. Crawford then in 
the Legislature, championed his friend's cause. After a searching inquiry the 
committee reported the charges unfounded, which report was adopted by fifty- 
two to four. General Clark was exceedingly restive under this result, and chal- 
lenged Mr. Crawford. On the field, the general and his seconds are said to 
have harrassed Mr. Crawford with quibbles and controversies until he lost tem- 
per, and when put to the peg, suffered his disengaged arm to hang outside his 
body, so that General Clarke's ball, which would have otherwise passed harm- 
lessly by, struck his wrist. In person Mr. Crawford was a tall, large, fine look- 
ing man of exceedingly imposing personal appearance, so much so that it is said 
the Emperor Napoleon remarked of him when presented at his court that he 
was the only man to whom he ever felt constrained to bow. Mr. Crawford was 
minister when the emperor was compelled to sign the famous abdication at 
Fontainebleau. and witnessed the entry of the Emperor of Russia and King of 
Prussia into Paris at the head of 50,000 of the flower of their soldiery. As a 
lawyer, Mr. Crawford rendered signal service to the jurisprudence of Georgia. 
In conjunction with Horatio Marbury he compiled, at an early age, "Marbury 
and Crawford's Digest of Georgia Laws ;" and during the entire period he was 
on the bench, namely, from 1 827 to 1834, was chairman of the convention of 
Superior Court judges, which met annually to consider doubtful and difficult 
points of law arising in the several circuits, with intent to form a legal stand- 
ard of interpretation and practice, there then being no Supreme Court. The 
decisions are to be found in ' Dudley's Georgia Reports." The value of these 
conventions led not long after to the establishment of the Supreme Court. 

Robert Watkins compiled in conjunction with his brother, George, " Wat- 
kins' Digest," our oldest digest of Georgia laws, and fought a duel in 1802 with 
Governor James Jackson, growing out of this work. General James Jackson, 
as the most active opponent of tiie Yazoo sale and the author of the Rescinding 
Act, was elected governor in 1798. In this capacity he rejected the digest of 
Georgia laws prepared by Robert and George Watkins, on the ground that the 
compilers had inserted in the volume the Yazoo Act of 1 795, in defiance of the 
Rescinding Act, which declared it never to have been one of the laws of the 
State. B\' this means a costl\^ edition was thrown on the hands of the compilers 
to their pecuniary loss, and with the result of engendering a bitterness of feel- 
ing which developed into a hostile meeting some years afterwards between Gov- 
ernor J'ackson and Robert Watkins, which was conducted in the highest style 



228 History of Augusta. 



of punctilio. While the seconds were arranging; the terms of the combat, the 
principals conversed "with great elegance and entire politeness" on different 
matters, so that no one would have imagined they were about presently to cut 
each other's throats. Then the seconds notified the combatants of the terms 
agreed on : You are to stand at the distance of ten paces; you are to fire at 
the word make ready, fire! a snap or a flash is to be counted as a shot, etc., 
etc. At the first fire both pistols went off into the ground ; the second was a 
blank shot; at the third Governor Jackson fell, shot, secii?idc7n a) tern, in the 
right hip. He insisted on another fire, but the surgeons claimed the right to 
first examine him ; and on their report that the ball might have entered the 
cavity, hostilities ceased. Mr. VVatkin's with great civility, offered his services 
to bear the wounded man from the field; and, on being carried off, the gov- 
ernor most affably remarked, " D — n it, Watkins, 1 thought I could give you 
another shot." 

The Carnes were two in number, Thomas P., one of the commissioners who 
ran the line between North Carolina and Georgia, and judge of the Western 
Circuit from 1798 to 1803, and again from 1809 to 1813; and Peter Johnston 
Carnes, attorney-general of the Middle Circuit, from 1799 to 1804. At this 
time and for years after the bar wore black silk robes, and the sheriff gown and 
sword. 

It has been stated that in 1789 the State was divided into two judicial dis- 
tricts, the eastern and western, Augusta being in the latter. In 1797 three judi- 
cial districts were made, called respectively, the Eastern, the Middle and the 
Western Circuits, Richmond being in the Middle Circuit, and so remaining until 
the Augusta Circuit, comprising the counties of Burke, Columbia, McDuffie 
and Richmond, was created in 1870. The judicial history of the Middle Cir- 
cuit is, therefore, a long one and as brilliant as it is long. Of some of its judges 
and lawyers we have already spoken, and now resume the narrative. It will 
be impossible in th^ limits of this sketch to speak of all eminent in the legal 
profession at Augusta, and" we will therefore select some of the most striking 
characters. Some few years after Chief Justice Walton, the celebrated -Robert 
Raymond Reid became judge. Mr. Reid was prominent in public life for over 
a quarter of a century. In 1816, when but twenty-seven years of age, he was 
elected judge of the Middle Circuit ; in 1 8 1 8 was sent to Congress, and in 1 820 
re-elected ; at the expiration of that term in_ 1823, he was made mayor of Au- 
gusta, and re-electtd to that office in 1824; in 1825 was again elected Superior 
Court judge, and being defeated of a re election by reason of having been a 
Clarke man in the contest between him and Troup for the governorship, in the 
days of "Troup and the Treaty," wa:, made judge of the City Court of Augusta 
in 1827, and re-elected to that office in 1829. In 1832 President Jackson ap- 
pointed him judge of the United States for the district of East Florida, and in 
1839 he was appointed by President Van Huren governor of Florida, in which 



Bench and Bar. 229 



office he died in 1841. This list of honors is sufficient to show what opinion 
was entertained of his legal abilities, but his literary talents were even greater. 
Who can read without emotion the beautiful story of his early life and first 
great sorrow as it appears in his diary. He was sent to a distant school and 
being a delicate, effeminate boy was roughly used by his stouter companions. 
Of this period he says : 

"I was at last, after acquiring the character of a dull, lazy and unprincipled 
child taken home. My vices forsook me and my joys returned. Let those 
who have children take care how they send them forth at an early age to an 
unfeeling world! I was again with my mother, and again, in reading, writing, 
— thinking rapturously — looking at her benign face, listening to her voice, and 
imbibing her instructions, I was happy — too happy. 

" About a year after I was sent to Savannah to the care of an aunt, and there 
I was as miserable as before. The boys imposed upon me ; my cousins 
cheated and scorned me; my aunt and uncle neglected and starved me. After 
some time I returned to my beloved home. I had no reputation for genius ex- 
cept at home. There I spoke to the admiration of my parents, and wrote both 
prose and poetry which they esteemed prodigiously fine. I also had a turn for 
drawing, with which my mother was delighted. After a twelve month passed 
in my heaven of home I was taken by my father to Augusta. The scene was 
changed. I met kind hearted boys, indulgent and friendly teachers, and kind 
friends. Among the first, James McLaws, always my friend, and afterward 
my brother-in-law; John Powell, a fine lad, the victim of disease too soon. 
My heart, which had always loved something or other — now a boy, and now 

a girl — formed a strong attachment to ; but a stronger one for . 

I never loved any being, except my mother, as well as I did . We 

were at dancing-school together ; and though she never acknowledged her af- 
fection, and I did not declare my own, we both well knew how dear we were 
to each other. 

"To return, my mother died, and I received the heartrending news at Au- 
gusta. Great Father of mercies ! what were my sufferings, those who saw my 
agony alone can tell. I sat sometimes looking at the moon with streaming 
eyes, remembering the moments we had passed together by moonlight, and 
recalling all my poor mother's sorrows, her virtues, her voice, and her words. 
At other times, when all was still around me, and my companions were asleep, 
I have sobbed upon my pillow and drenched it in tears. My studious habits 
were abandoned,, and an all-absorbing grief possessed me. I determined to leave 
school ; and, opportunity affording, I went home. 

"My poor mother's late residence was a desert;" but I walked about the 
garden, through her chamber, sat in her chair, and bewailed her with a grief 
most poignant. O! my beloved parent, dost thou inhabit other regions, and 
can it be that thou forgettest thy erring and unhappy and still helpless son ? 



^3o History of Augusta. 



On thy death bed thou didst caress a Httle butterfly, fancyin*^ that my spirit 
liad taken a favorite and lovely form to commune with thine in its darkest hour ; 
and now I sometimes think when a butterfly comes to me fluttering around the 
candle at which I read, settling on my sleeve, or crosses my evening walk, 
that thou has not forgot, but art still near me O, loved long and ever, if my 
thoughts can be known to thee, and if thou iiast power to assist me, yield me 
thine aid ; take sometimes the place of my guardian spirit, and be ever near me ; 
and, oh, implore thy God and my God to forgive my follies and to grant me 
strength to bear up against the ills of life, and to overcome the envy and malice 
of my enemies " 

In enforcing on his grand juries the necessity of maintaining the laws Judge 
Reid's literary turn did him good service. In one of the counties of his circuit 
the disgusting vice of drunkenness was exceedingly prevalent, and after stating 
this county was particularly afflicted in one respect, the judge said : "Need I 
tell you in plainer language it is drunkenness of which I speak ? Man is at best 
but the creature of frailty. The violence of passion agitates the human mind 
with continual tumult, and the voice of reason, like the cries of the shipwrecked 
mariner, is heard only in the pauses of the storm. But when a depraved ap- 
petite delivers its miserable victim to the influence of intemperance, it is then 
that reason is overwhelmed, pride forgets its consequence, intellect relinquishes 
its rich treasures, and that form which bore the impression and seal of divinity 
is changed into a bloated monster, with feelings and propensities at once best- 
ial and disgusting. Many persons vainly imagine that infractions of the laws 
are venial when committed in a state of intoxication, and they sophistically 
argue that, laboring under a species of madness, they are driven to atrocities 
from which, in their moments of sobriety and self collection they would start 
with abhorrence. But the plea will not avail. This hideous vice conceals 
none of its deformities. It is true the brimming goblet may sparkle in the 
hand of pleasure, but beneath its transparent wave is seen the dark and deep 
and deadly poison. Roses m ly crown the cup, but they are cankered by tears 
of remorse and sorrow and disappointment. The unhappx' being who ventures 
to slake his thirst knows at the moment the perils which await him He has 
before witnessed its horrible effects. He has seen the fond father become the 
hater of his offspring, the tender husband transformed to the inveterate tyrant, 
the fciithful friend to the bitter enemy, the pride of society to the object of 
common scorn, and yet he will not abstain, yet will he swallow down the in- 
furiating draught which shall make him the jest of the vulgar, the scoff of his 
foes, and the regret of his friends — which shall lift his arm against every man, 
and every man's hand against him. Let him then receive the consequences 
of his temerity; he has courted them with his eyes open. The law rejects his 
claim to its lenity, and intemperance adds a blacker shade to the enormities 
which it produces." 



Bench and Bar. 231 



The grand jury were profoundly impressed with this ornate, and yet forci- 
ble, exposition of the legal doctrine that voluntary drunkenness is no excuse 
for crime ; thanked the judge "for his determined support of good order ;" re- 
quested the charge should be published, and called on the Legislature to grant 
no licenses to retail liquors except to inns, in small quantities, for travelers and 
strangers. 

Judge Reid's pen could turn to humorous as well as serious thought. On 
assuming his position on the United States bench in Florida he found a very 
different class of lawyers from that to which he had been accustomed at home. 
One writer says: "The bar of the Middle Circuit always maintained a high 
character for abilities and courtesy. Its members fostered a lofty social bear- 
ing, neither oppressive by cold dignity, nor yet so free as to encourage rude 
familiarity. It was the happy medium which secured respect and business on 
terms compatible with true fame. Of this school Judge Reid was a loyal dis- 
ciple." The Florida bar, as was perhaps natural in a territory newly opened, 
was of rougher mould, and the judge thus limns one of them : 

" Getting on in court pretty well ; only one skirmish, and that with one of 
the bar, whose temper and habits and manner unfit him for social life. What 
shall we think of one whose literary attainments are not inconsiderable, whose 
physical and mental powers are, perhaps, extraordinary, whose industry and 
energy are vigorous and indefatigable, and yet whose love of self and ambition 
are unbounded, who is impatient of all restraint, suspicious, angry, and re- 
vengeful, with a spice of magnanimity and a gloss of good breeding, to which 
may be added violent passions irritable feelings, and unbounded craft ? All 

these qualities belong to , and make him a strange, lofty and repulsive 

character. When we look to his gigantic stature, lofty brow, the deep furrows 
of passion around his eyes and on his cheeks, his surly mouth, formed not 
■even for sneers, but full of bitterness, rank bitterness ; and lastly his black eyes, 
in which you look as into deep and dark fountains of sin and remorse ; eyes 
which may be characterized by the word ' luciferian,' more than any other, we 
behold a being from whom we must stand apart, who can have no sympathy 
with us, and who, if we approach too near him, will certainly do us harm." 

The bar of m hich this extraordinary character was a member gave the 
judge a specimen of its breeding by inviting him to a curious banquet, which 
he calls a " feast of shells." In a letter informing him that the gentlemen of 
the long robe thought very well of him, he was invited to a public dinner in 
his honor. No place was mentioned, and after waiting in expectation of an 
escort till the hour named, the judge sallied forth alone, having previously 
prepared a speech " to be delivered after the removal of the cloth, and in which 
everything that could be agreeable to the bar was carefully infused. ' As they 
treat me,' thought I, ' why should I not treat them in return ?' As well as I 
remember 'twas a pretty good speech, with several clever flights." After wan- 



232 History of Augusta. 



dering about awhile the judge arrived at a house where it was understood the 
banquet was to be given, and reconnoitered his way into tiie parlor. There 
was no table therein, and but three chairs. Thinking there was some mistake, 
he was about to beat a retreat when a gentleman of the bar entered and some- 
what restored the judicial equanimity by his cordiality. " Said I, ' the hour 
mentioned in my invitation has passed, so I thought I would come round ; but 
I fear I'm too early.' ' No,' he coldly replied,' but the dinner is too late.' 
' Well,' said I, * I'll return home, and come back again.' ' Well, perhaps, '^ 
said he ' it might be as well and better than to stay here alone.' So I was pre- 
paring to abscond, when in came a few gentlemen, and other chairs being 
brought, we seated ourselves in a piazza, and a conversation commenced, dur- 
ing which some one or two other gentlemen dropped in. ' This,' said I to 
myself, ' is not a very promising beginning, but who knows how well it may 
end ?' So we talked of the heat of the weather, alligators, the Greek pun for 

laughter, etc., etc., when Messrs. made their appearance and invited 

us up to dinner. The dinner was plentiful — ham, poultry, ducks, a half turtle 

soup — everything rough and coarse. Judge at the head, and Mr. 

at the tail, and the guests few and far between, and vacant chairs scat- 
tered from right to left. But few words were said. All seemed wrapped in 
their own gloomy thoughts. ' I wish,' said I to myself, ' I had been in Guinea 
before I accepted this invitation. Here is evidently something wrong." At 
length wine was introduced, and the judge began to look for better hours, but 
worse ensued. "This," said a commissary's man, "is the gift of our friend, 
Mr. , who left us this morning in the Agnes for Charleston. ' Come, gen- 
tlemen, 'fill your glasses,' said the president. 'Now,' thought I, ' he'll drink 
my health, and how shall I demean myself so as to be neither civil nor offen- 
sive ?' I resolved at once. ' The health,' said the president, ' of our absent 

friend, Mr. ' (the donor of the wine) I drank a bumper. By this time 

Mr. (the champaign having been introduced), got drunk, and he, after 

some coarse and maudlin prelectives, called on the president for a toast. The 

president declined, and begged the bewildered to get the toast from the 

other end of the table. consented, and halloed for a toast from Mr. , 

who insisted he would not give one, and the president should. Then the pres- 
ident, looking for a moment like a thunder-storm, but, turning to me, said, ' If 
I give a toast, you'll not get under the table ?' ' Oh, no !' said I, good humor- 
edly, ' I'll stick to you at all events !' Then they filled, and the president, in 
a hurried manner, said, * I'll give you our excellent friend and guest, the Hon. 
Robert Raymond Reid, the excellent judge of, etc., etc' They drank their 
wine. ' Now,' said I, ' if you will be pleased to fill your glasses, I'll give you 
a toast.' They filled. 'The hospitable and excellent citizens of St. Augus- 
tine.' They looked surprised. Toasts went on. One drank the judiciary, 
another the chief justice, another the memory of Julius C;vsar, another the 



Bench and Bar. • 233 



memory of Noah, the drunken lawyer gave ' the memory of our departed 
friends,' and moreover he sung 'The Old Jackdaw and the Young Jackdaw,' 
and swore he liked no courts because they always made d — d rascally decisions 
against him. 

"Thus flew the hours, and at length I escaped, leaving my brethren of the 
bar and guests, president, \'ice-president and all, scarcely less sorrowful or 

sober (except ) after emptying half a dozen of champagne than when the 

happy festival commenced. For my own part I never knew a compliment 
press so closely on the confines of insult. Why did I accept that invitation? 
'Twas a false step. I went home and burned the notes of my speech." 

The judge was a great admirer of Andrew Jackson, but hardly able to en- 
dorse all the eccentric movements of that hero when president. " He frocks 
and unfrocks at pleasure, but he is a magnificent fellow, and the best constitu- 
tional president since the days of Jefiferson, who was himself not sinless." Then 
he tells a story of old Hickory's taste in music, as related by Governor Duval. 
"I was," said he, "at the White House one evening, and tliere were Mrs. D. 
and Mrs. J., and a half dozen others, dressed up in the first style a la Parisieniie, 
and there were sofas and ottomans, and musical instruments, and lights, all of 
which, with the company, made a pretty picture. I had been invited to spend 
a sociable evening, and the ladies and the music made my heart throb as I 
entered the saloon, for, old as I am, I love both. Very soon I was asked if I 
would not approach a group, and listen to the splendid performance of a young 
gentleman just returned from Italy, and who played divinely. I left the side 
of the general, who was smoking in his large arm chair, and beheld, sur- 
rounded by beauty and fashion, a young man who sat on a low stool with a 
guitar across his lap. ' Good heavens,' thought I, ' Can the spirit of harmony 
reside in such a temple ?' He had a huge head, on the front of which his hair 
had been brushed in three ways, to the right, to the left, and in front, and then 
purposely, some confusion had been imparted to it. The hinder part had been 
closely cut. His neck was enveloped in a stock which closely compressed it, 
leaving two little points of shirt collar projecting under his chin. He wore 
large whiskers, innumerable chains and shirt buttons, was tightly laced, and 
bent forward in such a way as to give him, in his close habit, a monkey-like 
aspect. After some preluding, the creature opened his mouth and sung — no, 
that is not the word — he squalled, worked his eyes and heaved his breast, now 
sinking into a whisper, and now squealing so loud you might have heard him 
at the capitol. Never did I hear such horrible noises. But after a while I was 
relieved by the conclusion of the strain, when all pronounced it exquisite — an 
admirable Italian sonnet. I went back to the president. 'Well, governor,' 
said he, ' don't you like the music ?' ' General,' said I, ' its d — d stuff, between 
you and me. Come here, Tommy Blount. And now let me have leave to 
make this lad from the wilds of Tennessee, sing ' Blue Bonnets on the Border.' 

30 



234 History of Augusta. 



' Certainly,' said the general, and Tommy, without any affectation, began to 
sin'^ In a moment, such was the force of his melody that the ladies and their 
sparks flocked around him. Their eyes glistened with pleasure and feeling; 
there was not the rustling of a ribbon to be heard. Tom's fine tones filled the 
spacious room, and made their way to all hearts except the youngster from his 
Italian travels. When the music was done, all were warmly expressing their 
pleasure. I looked round for Monsieur Squallini, and there he sat on the little 
stool, the lonesomest man I ever saw in my life. ' General,' says I, ' that's the 
sort of music for me.' 'Yes, governor,' said the president, 'that's the music 
that makes the goose flesh come, and nothing could be better except Wash- 
ington's march upon the drum and fife.' " 

Freeman Walker was one of the most distinguished lawyers of his day. 
He was born October 25^ 1780, in Virginia, and when seventeen years old 
came to Augusta and studied law with his brother, George Walker, then a lead- 
inCT member of the bar. In 1802 he began practice, and soon rose to eminence, 
being equally distinguished for solid learning and bright and ready wit. In 
1807 he was sent to the Legislature from Richmond county, and in 18 17 chosen 
mayor of Augusta by the city council, which then elected, and re-elected in 
1818 and 18 19. In the latter part of that year he was elected to the United 
States Senate, and resigned the mayoralty on December 8, 18 19, in order to 
take his seat in that august body, succeeding the celebrated John Forsyth. 
In 1 82 1 Major Walker resigned his seat in the Senate, and in the next year 
was, for the fourth time, elected mayor of Augusta. The portrait of this dis- 
tinguished and witty advocate hangs in the mayor's office, and represents him 
as a strikingly handsome man, with an air of quiet dignity through which lurks 
in his bright eye the spirit of merriment and humor. As has been elsewhere 
stated, he is believed to be the Freeman Lazenby of one of Judge Longstreet's 
lauf^hable " Georgia Scenes," and by his genial manners made hosts of friends. 
While somewhat quick in temper, he was ready to see the laughable side of 
a serious matter, as is amply evidenced by his encounter with the famous Judge 
Dooly, so celebrated for his wit and humor. While on circuit once, the bar 
supper waxed uproarious. The fun grew fast and furious, and in those days 
when the wine flew freely hard rubs were given and received. Judge Dooley 
was in more than ordinary spirits, and jested so long and roughly with Major 
Walker, that the latter's equanimity finally gave way, and catching up a chair 
he'advanced on his tormentor. The judge seized a large carving knife, and 
affairs looked serious. Several gentlemen seized the judge, and but one caught 
hold of Major Walker. With a comical look the judge cried out, " Gentlemen, 
one of you will be sufficient to prevent me from doing mischief; the rest of you 
had better hold Major Walker!" The laugh which followed restored the era 
of wood feeling, and the fun and frolic went on as before. Major Walker died 
at the age of forty-seven, and the opinion of his contemporaries is expressed 




■'—I b,,l uiHU,: 




Bench and Bar. 235 

in his epitaph as written by his friend, Richard Henry Wilde, author of that 
beautiful poem, " My life is like the summer rose." 

" Consecrated 

to the cherished memory and mortal relics 

of 

Freeman Walker, 

an able and successful advocate, 

a graceful and fluent speaker. 

His influence as a statesman, his reputation as an orator, and 

his urbanity as a gentleman, were embellished ;ind endeared 

by 

social and domestic virtues. 

Long a distinguished member of the bar. 

Often elected to the Legislature of the State, 

he at length became 

one of her senators in Congress, 

and retired after two years of honorable service, 

to resume a profitable profession, 

which he practiced with untiring industry, and 

unblemished character, until shortly before his death. 

Generous, hospitable, and humane, 

of cheerful temper and familiar manner, 

he was idolized by his family, 

beloved bv his friends, 

and 

admired by his countrymen. 

Even party spirit in his favor 

forgot something of its bitterness, and those 

who differed from the politician, 

did justice to the man. 

Born in Virginia, in October, 1780, 

His brilliant and useful life 

was terminated by a pulmonary complaint 

on the 23d day of September, 1827, 

in the 47th year of his age." 

Walker county is named after Major Freeman Walker. 

John P. King was another celebrated lawyer of the time. Mr. King was 
born in Kentucky, but at an early age made Georgia his home, and adopted 
the law as a profession in Augusta. In 1832 he was made judge of the City 
Court of Augusta, succeeding Hon. Robert Raymond Reid, who had been 
appointed United States judge in Florida. In 1833 Mr. King was appointed 
to the United States Senate in the place of Governor Troup, resigned, and in 
1835 was elected by the Legislature, but resigned in 1837. On his return to 
Augusta Judge King seemed to foresee the enormous development of the rail- 
way system, and, abandoning the practice of his profession, turned his atten- 
tion to railroad affairs. He was prominent in creating the Georgia Railroad ; 



^6 • History of Augusta. 



was for very many years president of that company, one of the oldest, most 
useful and most substantial in the United States, and may be justly termed the 
father of the road. Judge King died in Augusta in 1887 at a very advanced 
age, being at the time of his demise the oldest United States senator surviving. 

Nicholas Ware was also an Augusta lawyer of the old school. He was 
born in Virginia in 1776, studied law in Augusta, then attended the famous 
Gould Law School at Litchfield, Conn., and on his return began practice in 
this city. When Major Freeman Walker resigned the mayoralty of Augusta 
to take his seat in the United States Senate, Mr. Ware was elected in his place 
and re-elected in 1820, and a<4ain in 1821. In the latter part of 1821 he re- 
rigned in order to enter the United States Senate, where he died in 1824. 
Mr. Ware was a strong friend of the Richmond Academy and distinguished 
for his literary tastes. Ware county is named after him. 

One of the most celebrated lawyers of Augusta was John Forsyth. He 
was born in Virginia in 1781, and four years afterwards his father, an officer of 
the Revolution, removed to Augusta, Here the elder Forsyth was made United 
States Marshal, and in the enforcement of the law, lost his life. About 1795 a 
ca. sa issued out of the United States Court for the arrest of one Beverly Allen, 
a preacher from Wilkes county. Allen barricaded himself in a storehouse in 
Augusta, and when the marshal forced the door, shot him dead. The grave 
of marshal Forsyth is to be seen in St. Paul's churchyard, with an inscription 
laudatory of his services in the Revolution, and his unflinching courage in the 
execution of duty. On the tomb is also graven the insignia of the Order of 
the Cincinnati. 

John Forsyth studied law in Augusta with Mr. Noel, and was admitted in 
1802, when just of age. From 1808 to 181 i he was attorney general of the 
Middle Circuit, from 181 2 to 1818 was member of Congress, in 18 18 was 
elected to the United States Senate, but in 18 19 resigned in order to accept the 
position of United States minister to Spain. There he remained four years, 
and satisfactorily adjusted all the delicate questions growing out of the cession 
of Florida to the United States. In 1823, while still in Spain, he was re-elected 
to Congress, and returned at each succeeding election till he resigned in 1827 
and was elected governor of Georgia. As governor Mr. Forsyth gave great 
attention to the amendment of the law. He urged the codification of the laws 
and the creation of a Supreme Court, which latter reform was adopted in 1845, 
and the former in i860. At the end of his gubernatorial term, in 1829, Mr. 
Forsyth was again sent to the United States, succeeding the celebrated John 
McPherson lierrien, of Savannah, and became the champion of President Jack- 
son, in that body. In 183 i he was elected for the full term of six years. He 
stood by General Jackson manfully in the nullification issue, the bank question, 
and other exciting controversies of that time, and in 1834 became secretary of 
State, and for seven years was the head of the cabinet, holding during the 



Bench and Bar. 237 



second term of President Jackson and during the presidency of his successor, 
Martin Van Buren. In March, 1841, General Harrison became president, and 
appointed Daniel Webster secretary of State. In the fall of that year Mr. For- 
syth died. One of the last objects to which he devoted his attention when 
secretary of State was the annexation of Texas, and while he did not live to see 
it accomplished, his efforts paved the way for that consummation a few years 
later. Mr. Forsyth is said to have been a model of manly beauty, and to have 
possessed a voice as clear as a silver clarion. His abilities as a diplomatist and 
a debater were so evenly balanced that it is difficult to say in which he excelled. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

BENCH AND BAR, CONCLUDED, 

Eminent Lawyers of Augusta, Continued — Richard I lenry Wilde — " My Life is Like tlie 
Summer Rose" — George W. Crawford — Charles J. Jenkins — Ebenezer Starnes- — Andrew 
J. Miller — William T. Gould — Henry H. Gumming — Governor William Schley — Judge John 
Shly — Judge Holt — Herschel V. Johnson — Court Roll of Judges from 1776 — Solicitors- 
General from 1796 — City Court of Augusta — Origin and History — Court Roll. 

RICHARD HENRY WILDE was a most eminent lawyer, and, what is 
remarkable, as great in the civil law courts of Louisiana, where he prac- 
ticed in the latter years of his life, as in the common law. Mr. Wilde was born 
in Dublin, September 24, 1789, and was reared from his thirteenth year in 
Augusta, where his widowed mother, by heroic efforts, supported a large 
family. Mr. Wilde aided her all his tender age and extremely delicate health 
permitted, and in the meanwhile read law incessantly by himself, being too 
poor to pay the fee then usual for instruction in a practitioner's office. Fear- 
ful he could not stand an examination, and dreading a failure at home, he made 
application in Greene Superior Court, then presided over by Judge Early, a 
rigid martinet, and more severe even than usual at the spectacle of a student 
applying for admission away from his own home. But a three days' examina- 
tion failed to shake young Wilde, and he was triumphantly admitted. His 
success at the bar was immediate. In 181 5 he was elected to Congress, again 
in 1825, in 1828, and from that time continuously till 1835. ^^ ^^'^^^ .sailed 
for Europe and remained abroad till 1842, writing two learned works on the 
great Italian poets, Dante and Tasso. In 1842 he returned home, but shortly 
afterwards removed to New Orleans, where he took rank at once with the then 
leaders of the civil law, Prentiss, Benjamin, Soule, and others. In 1847 he 



238 History of Augusta. 



died in that city of yellow fever. During his professional career Mr. Wilde 
was frequently engagj^d before the Supreme Court of the United States, but 
his fame as a lawyer makes him less known than one beautiful poem which 
met Byron's applause, and has been, by unanimous consent of the world of 
letters, acknowledged to be an unapproachable gem. It was written in 1820, 
and for some time there was a controversy as to whether it were original or a 
plagiarism from the Greek poet, A1c;eus. The facts are that after " My Life 
is Like the Summer Rose" was written by Mr. Wilde, Mr. Barclay, then Brit- 
ish consul at Savannah, and a man of letters, translated it into Greek for the 
amusement of himself and friends, and this translation coming under the ob- 
servation of some critic, was compared by him with the poem, with the result 
that Mr. Wilde was accused of plagiarism. Several eminent Greek scholars 
pronounced Mr. Barclay's translation not Greek poetry at all, but prose, and 
modern Greek prose at that ; and declared that no fragments of Alcaeus were 
extant at all resembling the poem. Mr. Barclay was much distressed at the 
use made of his translation, intended as it was solely for the private entertain- 
ment of himself and friends, and wrote Mr. Wilde a letter in which he stated 
that it was beyond question he was the author of the beautiful lines in contro- 
versy. The poem we here subjoin : 

Mv Lir-'E IS Like the Summer Rose. 

My lile is like the summer rose, 

That opens to the morning sky, 
And, ere the shades of evening close, 

Is scattered on the ground to die. 

Yet on that rose's humble bed 
The softest dews of night are shed, 
As though she wept such waste to see ; 
But none shall drop a tear for me ! 

My life is like the autumn leaf, 

Which trembles in the moon's pale ray ; 
Its hold is frail, its date is brief, 

Restless, — and soon to pass away : 

Yet when that leaf shall fall and fade, 
The parent tree will mourn its shade, 
The wind bemoan the leafless tree ; 
But none shall breathe a sigh for me. 

My life is like the print which feet 

Have left on Tampa's desert strand : 
Soon as the rising tide shall beat. 

Their trace will vanish from the sand : 

Yet, as if grieving to efface 

All vestige of the human race. 

On that lone shore loud moans the sea ; 

But none shall thus lament for me. 



Bench and Bar. ^^g 



George W. Crawford was born in Columbia, formerly Richmond, county 
December 22, 1798, and after graduating at Princeton, in 1820, began thJ 
study of the law in the office of Hon. Richard Henry Wilde, in Augusta. In 
1822 he was admitted and at once established a fine practice. In March, 1 827 
he was appointed attorney- general of the Middle Circuit, and in November'of 
that year elected for the full term and re-elected in 1828, serving until the fall 
of 1 83 1, when he was .succeeded by Charles J. Jenkins. In 1837 he was sent 
to the State Legislature and returned at each succeeding election, save one, 
till 1842. In that year he was sent to Congress, but in 1843 was elected 
governor. In 1845 he was again elected governor. His administration of 
this office was remarkable for the re-establishment of the credit of the State, 
which had become seriously impaired. The confidence of the banks and 
financiers of the State in Governor Crawford had much to do with this result, 
and the governor's confidence in the success of his own plans— for which he 
pledged his own means to the extent of $150,000— had equally as good an 
effect. The bonds of the State were brought to par, and its monetary affairs 
happily rehabilitated. In 1849 President Taylor appointed Mr. Crawford 
secretary of war, but on the death of the president he resigned and retired to 
private life. 

Charles Jones Jenkins was born in South Carolina in 1805, and educated at 
Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., under that famous preceptor; Rev. EHphalet 
Nott. Graduating in 1824, Mr. Jenkins began the practice of law in Augusta^ 
and in 183 1 was elected attorney- general of the Middle Circuit, retaining that 
position till 1834, being succeeded by that able jurist, Ebenezer Starnes.'' He 
served many terms in the Legislature from Richmond county, and was several 
times speaker of the House. In August, i860, he became one of the judges 
of the Supreme Court of Georgia, and remained on that bench till the fall^^of 
1865, when he was elected governor. Troubled days shortly ensued. In 
March, 1867, the State government was declared illegal by Congress and the 
State placed under military rule. Governor Jenkins resolutely recused to sur- 
render his chair to General Ruger, who had been appointed military governor 
until uniformed force would be employed, when, stating that he was powerless 
to resist, he left the capitol. The key of the treasury and the great seal of the 
State he refused to give up under any circumstances, and carried them off with 
him. Determined to sustain the civil power, if possible, he filed a bill in the 
Supreme Court of the United States, in the name of the State of Georgia, to 
enjoin the execution of the reconstruction acts on the ground that Congress 
could not constitutionally prostrate a State under military rule. The Supreme 
Court held that this was a political question over which it had no jurisdiction 
On the restoration of the State government, in 1870, the Legislature adopted 
the following resolution : 

Resolved, That his excellency, the governor, be authorized and instructed 



240 History ok Augusta. 



to have prepared, and, in the name of the people of Georgia, to present to Hon. 
Charles J. Jenkins, a seal to be the lac-simile of the one preserved and restored 
b)' him, except that, in addition to other devices, it shall have this inscription : 
" Presented to Charles J. Jenkins by the State of Georgia," and this legend, 
' ' in arduis fidelis. 

In 1877 Governor Jenkins was elected a delegate to the Constitutional 
Convention held that year, and was made president of the body. He died in 
1883, bearing the name of " noblest Roman of them all." 

Ebenezer Starnes was a sound and eminent jurist. In 1834 he was ap- 
pointed attorney-general of the Middle Circuit, and was subsequently elected 
to the same position by the Legislature, and performed its duties till the fall 
of 1840. 

In November, 1849, Mr. Starnes was elected judge of the Middle Cir- 
cuit, and in February, 1853, while still on the bench, was appointed to the 
Supreme Court, vice Judge Warner resigned. At its next session the Legis- 
lature elected him judge of the Supreme Court for si.x years, but he resigned 
at the close of 1855. From the establishment of the Supreme Court of 
Georgia up to the time Judge Starnes left the Superior Court bench, there 
were many reversals of the judgments below, the proportion being forty-eigh; 
per cent., but out of thirty-eight Superior Court judges. Judge Starnes was the 
most generally sustained, but seventeen per cent, of his decisions being re- 
versed. Judge Starnes was of a grave and dignified demeanor, a lawyer of 
ripe learning, and a man of kind heart We remember that he prided himself 
on being descended from Lawrence Sterne, the famous English writer, and 
once mentioned that the family crest was a starling, a bird which is the subject 
of one of Sterne's most beautiful passages. 

Andrew J. Miller was a distinguished contemporary of Wilde, Crawford, 
Jenkins, and Starnes. Mr. Miller was born in Camden county, Georgia, in 
1806, and at the age of sixteen was entered a cadet at the West Point Military 
Academy. His tastes lay in another direction and he soon returned home 
and began the study of law. When but nineteen he was authorized to be 
admitted to the bar by a special act of the General Assembly, and in 1825 
entered on the practice of his profession. Mr. Miller verified the observation 
that labor is genius He devoted himself to a careful study and preparation 
of his cases ; was always prompt and ready, and soon stood at the front of the 
bar. In 1836 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives, and 
in 1837 was sent to the State Senate, and continued to be a member of that 
body until his death in i8t6. He was twice president of the Senate, and even 
when not in the chair was the recognized arbiter in all questions of parlia- 
mentary procedure and law. He aided very greatly in projecting and accom- 
plishing the Western and Atlantic or State road, and during his entire legisla- 
tive life labored zealously in favor of the passage of a law reserving to a 



Bench and Bar. 241 



married woman the title to her property. Rules of law in vogue for centuries 
do not readily yield, and Mr. Miller passed away without carrying his favorite 
measure, but in 1866 it became law, and has now become a principle imbedded 
in the State constitution. In one of the many eulogies pronounced over Mr. 
Miller on his untimely demise, was one which especially referred to this fact. 
In the House of Representatives Mr. Thornton, of Muscogee, said : " He was, 
sir, the friend of woman, and I am glad that they, by their presence to-day, 
sanction the last act of respect paid to his name. He was the first who raised 
his arm and his voice to battle for woman's rights. For eighteen years he 
fought for the widow and her daughters, and he never would have ceased his 
efforts until he had carried his bill for the protection of their property. They 
should build him a monument to commemorate his exertions in their behalf. 
He was their friend and advocate." 

Mr. Miller was at the time of his death a member of the State Senate, city 
attorney of Augusta, and president of the Medical College of Georgia. The 
Legislature sent a special committee to his obsequies, created a new county — 
Miller — in his honor, and ordered a monument to be erected to him. 

William T. Gould was at the time of his death in 1 882, the Nestor of the Au- 
gusta bar. He was the son of the celebrated jurist, William Gould, whose law 
school at Litchfield, Conn., was in its time the most famous seat of legal learn- 
ing in the United States, and was in point of legal attainments a worthy scion 
of such a stock. Judge Gould cared nothing for political preferment, but at the 
bar was for more than half a century a central figure. He was for many years 
attorney of the Georgia Railroad, and for most of the time from 185 i to 1876, 
was judge of the City Court of Augusta. He survived to an extreme old age, 
but retained his intellectual faculties unimpaired almost to the very last. There 
was none of the uncertainty or forgetfulness of the ordinary old man. During 
his active life the judge was a devoted Mason, and almost at the close of his 
career, when unable to leave his chamber, a litigation involving the title of the 
Masonic Hall arose. The minutes of the order gave some information on a 
vital point, but in such a concise ambiguous way as not to be of much value. 
One of the counsel in the case requested us to accompany him on a visit to the 
judge to seek information as to the facts. As soon as the matter was stated, 
and before the minutes had been shown him to refresh his memory, the vet- 
eran lawyer in a surprisingly terse, clear way, recounted all that had occurred 
at the meeting of half a century before. There was not a moment's pause or 
hesitation. It was a wonderful exhibition of the strength of human memory 
in the extremity of age. 

Colonel Henry H. Gumming may be regarded as the father of the Augusta 

canal. He seems to have studied the subject of how to utilize the vast water 

power of the Savannah River for years, and never rested until, triumphing over 

all obstacles, he saw the water finally turned in. At the time this enterprise 

31 



242 History of Augusta. 



was projected it was asserted that the city council possessed no legal authority 
to undertake such works, nor could the Le<^islature confer such power, but 
Colonel Cumming's legal opinion to the contrary was sustained by the Su- 
preme Court of the State which held that the charter conferred the power, but 
if not the General Assembly had granted such authority, and was fully em- 
powered by the constitution of the State so to do. 

Governor William Schley belonged to a judicial family. He was 
himself judge of the Superior Courts of the Middle Circuit, his brother, 
John Schley, sat upon the same bench, and his nephew, William, John 
Schley's son, was judge of the Superior Courts of the Eastern Circuit. 
Governor Schley was born in Maryland in 1786, was educated in 
Augusta, and came to the bar in 1812. In 1825 he was elected judge of 
the Middle Circuit and served till 1828. In 1830 he was sent to the Legis- 
lature from Richmond county, and in 1832 was elected to Congress, and re- 
elected in 1834. In 1835 he was elected governor, and was untiring in his 
efforts to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad, and had finally the satis- 
faction of signing the bill ordering that important public work. It will have 
been noticed in this review that several of the prominent lawyers of Augusta 
had a strong pejichatit for developing industrial enterprises, and the Schleys 
were particularly notable this way. After a long public career Governor Schley 
developed a taste for cotton manufacturing, greatly to the surprise of his friends 
and of himself as well. When asked to explain this the governor humorously 
replied he knew not how he had become so tied up with cogs, and spindles, 
and motive power. At one time he said he was so disgusted with his brother 
John's devotion to mechanics that he could not abide a wheel on his planta- 
tion, even if it were only a wheelbarrow, but of a sudden found himself im- 
mersed in cotton factories. Governor Schley projected and at one timeow.ned 
Richmond Factory, a cotton manufacturing establishment on the waters of 
Spirit Creek, still in operation. While late in entering the industrial field Gov- 
ernor Schley won victories there as elsewhere, his factory for a'number of years 
paying a regular dividend of sixteen per cent. The governor also requited the 
debt which every lawyer owes his profession by the compilation of Schley's 
" Digest of English Statutes " of force in Georgia, a work of erudition and 
value. Schley county is named after Governor William Schley. 

John Schley, or Shly, as he spelled his name, started in life as a coachmaker 
at Louisville, then the capital of Georgia. At that time supplies were pain- 
fully wagoned up from Savannah, a distance of one hundred miles, and to ob- 
viate this tedious and expensive method of transportation Mr. Schley turned 
his attention to the improvement of the Ogeechee River and was foremost in 
urging the construction of the canal connecting that river and the Savannah. 
Till the rise of the railway system the method of transportation thus devised 
was of immense value. Mr. Shly also claims the honor of operating the first 



Bench and Bar. 243 



cotton manufactory in Georgia. It was a primitive afifair, run by horse- power, 
but did good work in its way. About 1830 Mr. Shly removed to Richmond 
county, and established on Butler's Creek a cotton- mill, Belleview Factory, 
which was the pioneer in that field, its success leading to the establishment of 
Richmond factory by Governor Schley, and, in time, to the construction of the 
Augusta canal and the rise of the great mill industry of Augusta. 

While busied with industrial matters, Mr. Shly found time to study law, and 
in 1834 became judge of the Middle Circuit. In 1838 he was re-elected, and 
again in 1841, serving eleven years. Judge Shly gave close attention to the 
cases argued before him, and in one instance summarily removed an obstacle 
to his giving that attentive consideration to counsel he desired. One day an 
eminent lawyer from South Carolina was arguing a knotty point before him 
with great ability and learning. The bar, partly from courtesy and partly 
from the excellence of the argument, were paying strict attention to their 
Carolina brother, and the bench was evidently much impressed. Not less in- 
terested was the veteran clerk of the court, whose desk was just below that of 
the judge. From long attendance Mr. Clerk had become a pretty fair judge 
of a legal argument himself, and on this important occasion had sharpened his 
faculties by copious potations. As the argument waxed warm he could not re- 
tain his seat, and rising little by little, finally stood bolt upright between judge 
and lawyer. Absorbed in his argument the jurist went on, but the judge was 
not so oblivious of the obstruction which blocked his view. A sharp repri- 
mand from the bench dropped the clerk into his seat as if shot, but in a few 
minutes he was bolt upright again, and wavering from side to side. For a few 
minutes the judge kept time with the oscillations, vainly trying to keep from 
behind the form, first on this side and then on that. Losing patience he siezed 
the court docket with both hands and, rising in the stirrups, came down on the 
muddled pate before him with a vigor which dropped Mr. Clerk at lightning 

speed into his seat. "Now, d you," said the court beneath his breath, "I 

think you'll stay down"; then, turning to the astonished counsel, calmly added 

with great courtesy. " Proceed, Brother , I think we need apprehend 

no further interruption." 

Judge Shly's reason for changing the spelling of his name was that, as ori- 
ginally written, it was abominably miscalled. His letters and papers would 
come as Schooly, and Scully and Sleigh and Slack and in a dozen other wrong 
ways, until in despair he hit upon Shly as a combination which no human in- 
genuity could pervert. 

Judge William W. Holt was another celebrated jurist of the olden time. 
He succeeded Judge Reid as mayor of Augusta in 1825, and was re-elected in 
1826; and for a time represented Richmond county in the Legislature, but 
his tastes turned to the law, and he is mainly remembered for his long and 
honorable career on the bench. In 1828 he was elected judge of the Middle 



244 History of Augusta. 

Circuit, succeeding Governor Schley, and served till 1834, when he was suc- 
ceeded by Judge John Shly. In January, 1847, he was appointed by Governor 
Towns to fill a vacancy, and in November following elected by the Legisla- 
ture for the full term, serving this time till November, 1849. I" August, 1853, 
he was appointed by Governor Cobb to fill out the unexpired term of Judge 
Starnes, appointed to the Supreme Court, and in November of that year was 
elected by the Legislature for still another full term ; and from that time for- 
ward was regularly re-elected term after term till 1863. The length of this 
service and the frequency of executive appointment and legislative election is 
the best evidence of Judge Holt's legal ability. The Supreme Court of Geor- 
gia was established in 1845, ^"d during the early portion of its history the de- 
cisions of the circuit judges were very frequently reversed, the proportion of 
reversals being about forty- eight per cent., this being probably due to the fact 
that there had been no common standard on many legal points during the time 
when each Superior Court judge was supreme in his own circuit. As has been 
stated, Judge Ebenezer Starnes had the least number of judgments reversed, 
and next to him came Judge Holt. Tlie memory of Judge Holt has lingered 
long at the bar and among the people. One portrait of him hangs in .the 
mayor's office in Augusta; another side by side with that of John Macpherson 
Berneir, the great advocate of Savannah, on the walls of Burke Superior Court. 
Herschel V. Johnson, twice governor of Georgia, was born in Burke county^ 
Ga., on the i8th of September, 18 12. In 1834 he graduated at the Univer- 
sity of Georgia, and in the same year entered on the practice of the law in 
the city of Augusta, having, with the vigor and determination characteristic of 
the man, pursued his collegiate and legal studies simultaneously. In 1839 he 
removed from Richmond to Jefferson county, and soon rose into public prom- 
inence. In 1843 he was nominated for Congress, but was defeated with the 
whole Democratic licket. The next year, in the famous presidential contest 
between James K. Polk and Henry Clay, he was Democratic elector for the 
then seventh district. In 1845, and again in 1847, he was strongly supported 
for governor in the Democratic State Nominating Convention, but on both oc- 
casions withdrew his name. In 1848 Hon. Walter T. Colquitt having resigned 
from the Cnited States Senate, Governor Towns appointed Mr. Johnson to fill 
the vacancy ; and during the long and excited senatorial session of that year 
he attracted great attention by the s )lidity and brilliance of his talents, John C. 
Calhoun declaring him the ablest man of his age in the Senate. In 1849 Gov- 
ernor Johnson was elected judge of the Superior Courts of the Ocmulgee Cir- 
cuit, which position he retained till nominated in 1853 as the Democratic can- 
didate for governor. His opponent in this contest was that other distinguished 
Georgian, Hon. Charles J Jenkins, and after a singularly close vote (Johnson 
47,638, Jenkins 47,128,) the subject of our sketch became chief magistrate of 
Georgia. In 1855 he was re-elected governor by a vote of 53,478 to 43,228 



Bench and Bar. 245 



for Hon. Garnett Andrews. In i860 Governor Johnson ran as vice-president 
on the Stephen A. Douglas ticket, and in 1861 was a delegate to the secession 
convention, and cast his vote with the minority of eighty-nine against the ma- 
jority of two hundred and eight that adopted the memorable measure of Jan- 
uary 19, 1861: "An ordinance to dissolve the union between the State of 
Georgia and other States united with her under a compact of government en- 
titled 'The Constitution of the United States of America.'" 

In 1865 Governor Johnson was president of the constitutional convention 
•called under the reconstruction scheme of President Johnson to rehabilitate the 
State, and, under the fond persuasion that the labors of the body would be ef- 
fectual to that end, in adjourning the convention sine die, addressed it in lan- 
guage which cannot be read even now without emotion : 

" Our old mother, thank God, is not dead, but she has been reduced to ex- 
tremity. We have been called together to nurse around her bedside, and to 
endeavor, if possible, to reanimate and reinvigorate her wasted body and now 
almost paralyzed limbs, and to drive back into her heart the vital blood, and 
bid it throb until the vital current shall stream through every vein and artery, 
and she shall bloom again in the beauty and vigor of health." 

The Legislature which met under the constitution of 1865 elected Governor 
Johnson and Hon. Alexander H. Stephens United States senators, but neither 
was allowed to take his seat. After this Governor Johnson resumed the prac- 
tice of the law, first in Augusta, in copartnership with that eminent jurist, Judge 
Ebenezer Starnes, aad afterwards in Jefferson county. In 1873 he was ap- 
pointed judge of the Superior Courts of the Middle Circuit, which position he 
filled with exemplary fidelity and usefulness until his death, which occurred at 
his home in Jefferson county, on the i6th of August, 1880. 

Of a number of the solicitors-general of the Middle Circuit we have already 
spoken. John Forsyth, George W. Crawford, Charles J. Jenkins, and Ebenezer 
Starnes are prominent on the list, three of them having become governor and 
two Supreme Court judges. James Gardner, another solicitor or attorney- 
general, as the solicitor- general of this particular circuit was called, was a prom- 
inent figure in the politics of his time, and was supported for governor in one 
of the most exciting nominating conventions ever held in the State. For many 
ballots he led all opposition, but it was finally seen that a two-thirds, then nec- 
essary, could not be obtained and he withdrew. Still no candidate could suc- 
ceed, and finally as a compromise Joseph E. Brown was nominated, thus be- 
ginning the career which has made him so prominent a figure in the history of 
Georgia. 

Having confined our review to the judges and lawyers who have passed into 
history, we will not speak of those yet in life, further than to say that the rep- 
utation of Augusta for legal ability has been honorably maintained. We here 
subjoin a court roll of the judges who have presided in the Superior Court of 



246 



History ok Augusta. 



Richmond county from the close of the revolution, and a list of the solicitors- 
general from 1796 to the present day: 



Chief Justices. 



John Glen 1776 

William Stephens 1780 

John Wereat 1781 



George Walton 1 782 

Henry Osborne 1787 

Nathaniel Pendleton 1789. 



Sui'EKioR Court Judges. 



George Walton 1 790 

William F'evv 1796 

George Walton 1799 

Benjamin Skrine 1804 

Robert Walker 181 3 

Robert R. Reid 1816 

John H. Montgomery 18 19 

Robert Walker 1822 

Robert R. Reid 1825 

William Schley 1825 

William W. Holt 1828 



John Shly 1834 

Roger L. Gamble . . . ; 1 845 

William W. Holt 1847 

Ebenezer Starnes . 1849 

Andrew J. Miller 1853 

William W. Holt 1853 

James S. Hook 1 863 

William Gibson 1866 

Claiborne Snead 1 879 

Henry C. Roney 1883 



Solicitors-General. 



Henry George Caldwell 1 796 

Peter Johnston Carnes 1799 

Robert Walker 1804 

John Forsyth 1 808 

Alexander Allen 181 i 

Alexander M. Allen 18 13 

Roger L. Gamble 1816 

Thomas F. Weils 1822 

George W. Crawford 1827 

Charles J. Jenkins 1831 

Ebenezer Starnes 1834 



John J. Flournoy i 

Alpheus Colvert i 

John T. Shewmake i 

William R. M'Laws i 

Alpheus M. Rogers i 

W. W. Montgomery i 

John P. C. Whitehead i 

John R. Prescott i 

H. Clay Foster i 

Davenport Jackson i 

Salem Dutcher i 



843 
847 
851 

855 
859 
862 
865 
866 
868 
872 
877 



James Gardner 1840 Boy kin Wright 1881 

h'roin the review given it will be seen that the bench and bar of Augusta 
have been honorably prominent in public affairs, State and Federal. 

George Walton signed the Declaration of Independence. William Few and 
Abraham Baldwin were the only two of the Georgia deputies who signed the 
Constitution of the United States. Freeman Walker, Nicholas Ware, Robert 
Walker, Robert Raymond Reid, and William W. Holt were mayors of Augusta. 
Charles J. Jenkins, Ebenezer Starnes, and William W. Montgomery became 
Supreme Court judges. George Walton, John Milledge, John Forsyth, George 
W. Crawford, William Schley, Herschel V. Johnson, and Charles J. Jenkins were 
governors of Georgia. William Few, George Walton, Abraham Baldwin, John 
Forsyth, Freeman Walker, Nicholas Ware, William H. Crawford, and John P. 
King became United States senators, and John Forsyth, secretary of State; 
George W. Crawford, secretary of war, and William H. Crawford, secretary of 
the treasury. The counties of Baldwin, Crawford, Forsyth, Glascock, Johnson, 



Bench and Bar. 247 



Miller, Schley, Telfair, Walker, Walton, and Ware still commemorate the names 
of men eminent in the history of Augusta's bench and bar. 

The history of the Augusta bar is largely connected with the Superior Court, 
but the records of the City Court show many of the names already mentioned. 
For some seventy years there has always been, under one name or another, a 
tribunal peculiar to the city in which a vast amount of legal business has been 
done. It began as the Mayor's Court, was then called the Common Pleas, and 
for many years past the City Court. Its history we here synopsize, adding a 
court-roll of this tribunal. 

By act of December 19, 1 8 1 7, there was established in Augusta a court called 
the Mayor's Court, the mayor being ex-o^cio judge thereof, the jurisdiction 
whereof extended to cases involving not less than thirty dollars nor more than 
two hundred dollars. For his compensation as judge the mayor was to have, 
in cases not exceeding fifty dollars, a fee of one dollar and fifty cents ; in cases 
of over fifty and not exceeding one hundred dollars, two dollars ; over one 
hundred and not exceeding one hundred and fifty dollars, three dollars ; and 
over one hundred and fifty dollars, four dollars. It was made a court of re- 
cord, and to have the same authority as the Mayor's Court of Savannah, in 
which court the sessions were to be monthly ; there was to be an appeal from 
the decision of the mayor to a jury of seven men ; the proceedings were to con- 
form to those of the Superior Court ; and the court could sit as a court of in- 
quiry in criminal causes. The court was to go into operation on January i, 
1818. 

By act of December 17, 1818, it was provided that the Mayor's Court should 
be held on the fourth Monday in each month, and iiave cognizance of all civil 
cases not involving title to real estate within the city, involving not less than 
twenty nor more than two hundred dollars, which should be tried by a jury of 
twelve, with the right in the court to grant a new trial in its discretion. In the 
absence of the mayor any member of the city council might preside, or the 
council could elect a ma.y or pro tern, as judge. Proceedings were to be by pe- 
tition, a copy of which was to be served on defendant five days before court. 
The court could issue attachments, hold to bail, and hear claims and illegalities. 
The city council was to elect a clerk and city sheriff for the court, who were to 
hold two years, and have the same fees as in the Superior Court. 

By act of December 9,^822, the jurisdiction of the Mayor's Court was ex- 
tended to cases not involving realty, where the defendant resided in the city, 
and the sum involved was not less than thirty nor more than three hundred 
dollars, but in no case was the court to have jurisdiction where a corporation 
or body politic was a party. There was to be an appeal in all cases to the Su- 
perior Court. 

By act of December 21, 1826, the name, the Mayor's Court of the city of 
Augusta was changed to the Court of Common Pleas for the city of Augusta, 



248 History of Augusta. 



and it was provided that the judge thereof should be elected by the Legisla- 
ture, and hold for three years. 

By act of December 19, 1828, the jurisdiction was limited to cases involv- 
ing not less than thirty nor more than two hundred and fifty dollars; but four 
terms a year were to be held, on the fourth Monday in January, April, July, 
and October; the clerk and sheriff were to have but two-thirds of the fees 
theretofore allowed ; and the attorney tax fee was to be on suits pressed to 
judgment, three dollars; settled before judgment, two dollars. 

By act of December 21, 1829, the jurisdiction was extended to three hun- 
dred dollars, cases involving title to land or within a magistrate's jurisdiction 
excepted ; the terms were to be held six times a year, on the fourth Monday 
in January, March, May, July, September, and November; rent cases were 
triable at the first term ; and, when the judge of the Superior Court was absent, 
the judge of the Common Pleas, in conjunction with the justices of the Inferior 
Court, had jurisdiction in habeas corpus. 

By act of December 21, 1830, the jurisdiction of the court was confined to 
cases where the defendant resided at the commencement of the suit within the 
corporate limits of the city of Augusta. 

An act of December 26, 1831, made some important changes. It was 
provided that where no plea was filed the court should award judgment, with- 
out the intervention of a jury, on proof of the plaintiff's demand, a rule now 
embodied in the State constitution. It was also provided that there should be 
no appeal to the Superior Court, but to a special jury in the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas. 

By act of December 24, 1832, the terms were changed to the second Mon- 
day of F'ebruary and April, fourth Monday of May and July, and second Mon- 
day of October and December. 

By act of December 22, 1834, the judge's fees were fixed at two dollars in 
cases not exceeding one hundred dollars ; where between one hundred and two 
hundred dollars, three dollars; over two hundred dollars, four dollars; on 
issues of fraud under insolvent debtors act, three dollars. All the laws as to 
interrogatories, de bene esse, and subpcena duces tucnvi were made applicable. 

By act of December 24, 1835, the city council was to fill vacancies in the 
office of clerk or sheriff of the Common Pleas, the city marshal to act as sheriff 
till such election. 

By act of December 30, 1836, the jurisdiction was extended to five hun- 
dred dollars, save as to cases within magistrate's jurisdiction ; the terms were 
made quarterly, on the second Monday in February, May, August, and Novem- 
ber ; the court was empowered to foreclose mortgages within its jurisdiction ; 
suits were to be filed ten, and process served eight, days before court ; the 
judge was to receive from the city council a salary of $i,000; all his former 
fees to be turned over to the council ; and judgment might be rendered at the 
first term where defendant failed to plead. 



Bench and Bar. 249 



By act of December 22, 1837, the provision authorizing the court to ren- 
der judgment at the first term where defendant failed to plead was repealed, 
and process was to be served nine days before court. 

By act of December 23, 1840, the terms were fixed for second Monday in 
February and May, and third Monday in July and October, and in event of 
vacancy in the office of clerk of the Common Pleas, the clerk of the city coun- 
cil was to act as such till the vacancy was filled. 

By act of December 27, 1842, the terms were fixed for fourth Monday in 
February, May, August, and November ; and the court fees were, in suits not 
exceeding one hundred dollars, one dollar ; between one hundred and two 
hundred dollars, two dollars ; between two hundred and three hundred and 
fifty dollars, three dollars ; over three hundred and fifty dollars, four dollars, to 
be paid before issue of process. 

By act of January 21, 1852, the terms were fixed for first Monday in 
March, fourth Monday in May, and first Monday in September and December. 
By act of February 15, 1856, " the Court of Common Pleas for the city of 
Augusta" was to be styled "the City Court of Augusta," and in November, 
1857, and every four years thereafter, the city council was to elect the judge; 
the court was to have jurisdiction of all offenses not punishable by death or 
imprisonment in the penitentiary, committed in the city ; and to have a grand 
jury to pass on indictments therefor, the criminal practice to be the same as in 
the Superior Court, with certiorari to that court, the attorney- general of the 
Middle District was to be the prosecuting officer of the City Court and the 
judge's salary was increased to $1,500, The same act empowered council to. 
appoint a recorder to try all infractions of the municipal ordinances. 

By act of Decetnber 17, 1861, the city council was empowered to fix the 
salary of the City Court judge not to be less than $1,000. 

By act of December 7, 1863, the judge of the City Court was given con- 
current jurisdiction with the judge of the Superior Court in habeas corpus 
cases. 

By act of March 9, 1865, the jurisdiction of the court was extended to ten 
thousand dollars, and the tax fee on suits was abolished. 

By act of February 8, 1866, it was provided that a writ of error should lie 
from the City Court to the Supreme Court, and by act of February 6, 1866, 
the jurisdiction was reduced to $1,000. 

By act of December 13, 1871, it was provided that the City Court of Au- 
gusta should have jurisdiction of suits against joint obligors, joint promisers, 
joint trespassers, or copartners, where one resided within the corporate limits, 
a second original to issue into the county of the other's residence. 

By act of August 24, 1872, the City Court was vested with concurrent 
jurisdiction with the Superior Court in all cases where the jurisdiction of the 
latter was not exclusive under the constitution, in cases involving not more 



32 



250 History of Augusta. 



than $1,000; and was empowered to render judgment in all civil causes, with- 
out the intervention of a jury, unless the defendant made written demand for 
a jury trial before the call of the appearance docket. The grand jury was 
abolished, and criminal causes made triable on written accusation founded on. 
affidavit of a prosecutor, and signed by the solicitor-general. 

By act of February 21, 1873, the mayor was directed to furnish two police- 
men to act as bailiffs during the session of the City Court. 

By act of February 28, 1876, the City Court of Augusta was abolished 
from January i, 1877, and its unfinished business turned over to the Superior 
Court. 

By act of September 22, 1881, a city court was established in the city of 
Augusta, with a territorial jurisdiction over Richmond county; was vested 
with jurisdiction in all civil cases, except divorce, ejectment and equity causes,, 
involving over one hundred and not exceeding two thousand dollars (this lat- 
ter limit removed in 1887) ; its authority within these limits being concurrent 
with that of the Superior Court. It was also given cognizance of all criminal 
cases where the punishment is not death or imprisonment in the penitentiary, 
to be tried on accusation, based on affidavit, and by the judge, unless defen- 
dant demand indictment and jury trial. The judge and City Court solicitor 
were made appointable by the governor and to hold four years. The judge 
of this court is also vested with the management of the county business, taxes, 
roads, poor, etc. This court is still in operation. The court roll of the judges 
of the City Court from its origin as the Mayor's Court to the present time is 

as follows : 

The Mayor's Court. — 1818-1827. judges. 

Jan. 1, 1818-Dec. 8, 1 8 19 Freeman Walker. 

Dec. 13, 1819-N0V. 21, 1821 Nicholas Ware. 

.Dec. 12, 1821-April 10, 1822 Richard Henry Wilde. 

April 10, 1822-N0V. 18, 1822 Robert Walker. 

Nov. 18, 1822-April II, 1823 Freeman Walker. 

April II, 1823-April 12. 1825 Robert Raymond Reid. 

April 12, 1825-Oct. 4, 1826 William W. Holt. 

Oct. 27, 1826-Feb. 22, 1827 Robert Raymond Reid. 

The Court of Common Pleas for the City of Augusta. 

1 827-1 832 Robert Raymond Reid. 

June-Nov., 1 832 John P. King. 

1832-1851 John W. Wilde. 

1851-1857 William T. Gould. 

The City Court of Augusta. 

1857-1866 William T. Gould. 

1866-1870 John C. .Snead. 

1870-1876 William T. Gould. 

The City Court. 

1881- William F; Eve. 

City Court Solicitors. 

1881-1885 Louis A. Dugas, jr. 

J 1885- C. Henrv Cohen. 



The Medical Profession. 



251 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. 

Augusta Physicians of 1760-1785 — First Sanitation Act — Medical Association of 1808 
— Medical Society of Augusta Incorporated in 1822 — Medical Academy of Georgia — Bach- 
elor of Medicine Degree — State Board of Physicians — Medical Institute of Georgia — Doctor 
of Medicine Degree — The Medical College Organized —* Roll of Graduates — Yellow Fever 
of 1839 — -Celebrated Report Thereon — Non-contagiousness Demonstrated. 

AS early as 1760, when Augusta had been settled but a quarter of a century, 
we read of a Dr. William Day being a resident of Richmond county, and 
it may fairly be inferred that he was a gentleman of extended practice and 
consequent acquaintance, since it appears he was one of the three tax assessors 
of the county, then much larger than it is now. We also read in the same 
year of a Dr. Thomas Ford, who must also have lived in Richmond, then a 
border county, as the Colonial Assembly votes him ^20 los. for attention to 
" the people of this province wounded by the Cherokee Indians." In 1773 
we read of Dr. Andrew Johnston, evidently of Augusta, since the Assembly 
-votes him ^^3 for examining the body of one William Miller, who had been 
shot about twenty miles above the city, the coroner desiring medical testimony 
at the inquest. We further learn from an ancient act of about this period that 
the division of the medical profession into physicians, surgeons and apothecaries 
was rigidly maintained. Coming down to the close of the Revolution, we find 
Dr. Johnston still a practicing physician in Richmond county, and that Dr. 
Francis Folliott and Dr. Thomas Taylor were contemporary. It appears that 
these gentlemen took the king's side in the Revolutionary struggle, and were 
included in the bill of attainder of the crown's principal adherents, passed in 
1778. By this all the property of the loyalists was confiscated and the loyal- 
ists themselves ordered to depart the State, and not to return under pain of 
death. It does not appear that Drs. Folliott and Taylor were relieved of their 
disabihties, but in 1785 Dr. Johnston was permitted to return home and re- 
sume practice on certain conditions. He was to pay an amercement, or fine, 
of one per cent, of his property, but was not to vote or hold office for fourteen 
years. The usual amercement, where the bar of the attainder was lifted, being 
twelve per cent, the doctor may be considered as fortunate, and, we suspect, 
owed his good fortune to the influence of a brother physician. Dr. Cornelius 
Dysart, who took the American side. Dr. Dysart lived on the Washington 
road, about three miles above Augusta, and was a man of large possessions, 
and, at one time, one of the commissioners to administer the sequestrated 
•estates of the loyalists. 



252 History of Augusta. 

About this time the first known steps for the sanitation of Augusta were 
taken. At that period the town had a deep gully extending diagonally across 
it from what is now the neighborhood of the Riverside Mills towards Green 
street, while on the southern side of the city lay a species of morass interspersed 
with swamp growtii. In 1786 an act was passed empowering the trustees of 
the Richmond Academy to lease out these swamp lands or commons, for terms 
of seven years in five acre lots, the preamble of the act giving as a reason that 
"the clearing and cultivation of the flat lands southward of Augusta will con- 
tribute much toward preserving the health of the inhabitants, as well as add to 
the support of the town." About the opening of the nineteenth century ap- 
pears another sanitary act. At this time the cotton-gin had become an estab- 
lished institution, and, especially about Augusta, the preparation of cotton for 
market had become a prosperous and growing business. It was supposed that 
the cotton seed would ferment and produce unhealthful odors, and in 1803 the 
Legislature passed an act that the owners or occupiers of cotton-gins in or 
about any town or village should keep the seed dry, and at least once a week 
remove them to such a distance from the town or village as would " prevent all 
the unwholesome effects arising from the stench and vapors arising from the 
seed in their putrid state, if suffered to remain in heaps," under penalty of a fine 
of three dollars per week. 

In July, 1808, a call was published in the Augusta Herald for a meeting of 
the physicians of the city to form a medical association, and while it does not 
appear what action was taken, it is quite probable that such a society was or- 
ganized. In 1822 there was such an organization, the officers and members of 
which were Dr. Anderson Watkins, president; Dr. Alexander Cunningham, 
vice-president; and Doctors Milton Antony, Thomas J. Wray, W. T. Young, 
William Savage, John Dent, B. D. Thompson and Thomas H. M. Fendall; and 
by act of November 27, 1822, the General Assembly incorporated the associ- 
ation under the name and style of "The Medical Society of Augusta, Georgia." 
The society was empowered " to receive, hold and enjoy real and personal 
estate for the use and benefit of said institution ; " and was made " capable of 
receiving any bequest or donation, whether in money or other things for the 
benefit of said institution ; " and empowered to " sell, lease, or exchange any 
estate by them acquired, whether by purchase, bequest, or donation ; " from 
which language it is clearly inferable that one of the objects of the society was 
to erect a medical college in Augusta. 

This intent becomes certain when we consider an act passed on December 
20, 1828, "to establish and incorporate the Medical Academy of Georgia." 
By this act Doctors William R. Waring, John Carter, Lewis D. Ford, Ignatius 
P. Garvin, Benjamin A. White, Samuel Boykin, William P. McConnell, Walter 
H. Weems, William P. Graham, Thomas P. Gorman, Alexander Jones, Milton 
Antony, John J. Boswell, Thomas Hoxey, James P. Scriven, William C. Daniel, 



The Medical Profession. 253 

Richard Banks, Henry Hull, John Dent, Thomas Hamilton, Tomlinson Fort, 
Nathan Crawford, O. C. Foot, and John Walker were constituted a body cor- 
porate under the name and style of " the Trustees of the Medical Academy of 
Georgia." The act authorized the trustees to establish within the corporate 
limits of the city of Augusta, a medical academy for the State of Georgia, on 
such principle, and under such rules and regulations, and with such professors, 
instructors, and officers as may be best calculated to perpetuate the same, and 
promote the improvement of its pupils in the several branches of the healing 
art." It was further provided that the trustees should annually assemble at the 
Medical Academy for an examination into its affairs, five to be a quorum, and 
that the said " trustees, together with the regular professors and teachers in 
the institution, shall constitute a board of examination, whose duty it shall be, 
at the said annual meeting, after thorough examination, to decide on the merits 
of such candidates as may have studied in the said institution at least one year, 
and complied with all the conditions imposed by the board of trustees as pre- 
hminary to such examination, and confer the degree of Bachelor of Medicine,, 
on such as in their judgment may be worthy of the same." The trustees were 
to keep a record "in which shall be registered the name, age and place of na- 
tivity of each and every person who shall receive from this institution the de- 
gree of Bachelor of Medicine, and the time when the said degree was conferred, 
together with the name of the members of the board of examination present " 
The trustees were allowed to hold real and personal property for the uses of 
the Medical Academy to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, and the 
graduates of the institution were to be allowed to practice medicine and sur- 
gery as fully as if licensed by the State Board of Physicians. 

The board of physicians here referred to had been appointed by an act of 
the General Assembly passed December 24, 1825, and from the names of the 
appointees it is quite clear that the faculty of Augusta had inspired this statute 
also. The following gentlemen constituted the State board: Doctors Tomlin- 
son Fort, Milton Antony, James P. Scriven, Charles West, Anderson Watkins,. 
Southworth Harlow, Ambrose Baber, B. A. White, Norburne B. Powell, Wal- 
ter H. Weems, William P. Graham, John Gerdine, A. B. Redby, O. C. Fort, 
Thomas Hamilton, William C. Daniel, John Dent, Thomas B. Gorman, Alex- 
ander Jones, and William N. Richardson. The act provided that no person 
should practice physic or surgery, or any of the branches thereof or prescribe 
for the cure of diseases for fee or reward unless licensed so to do by said board, 
under penalty of a fine ot not exceeding five hundred dollars for the first of- 
fense ; and for the second imprisonment not exceeding two months. It was 
also provided that no apothecary should vend drugs under like penalty, unless 
licensed by the board after examination into his knowledge of pharmacy. The 
substance of this statute is law to-day, and were the act enforced a valuable 
safeguard would be afforded the public health, and much malpractice and con- 



254 History of Augusta. 



sequent suffering obviated. It is unfortunately the case, however, that the offi- 
cers of the law are derelict in arresting and prosecuting those prowling quacks, 
mountebanks, and charlatans who from time to time peregrinate the country, 
robbing the ignorant and unwary, and leaving in their trail untold agony. 

Ryan act passed December 19, 1829, the name "Medical Academy of 
Georgia." was changed to "The Medical Institute of the State of Georgia." and 
the trustees of the institution were empowered "to confer the degree of Doc-- 
tor of Medicine upon such applicants, in such manner, at such times, and un- 
der such circumstances as may to the said board seem fit and proper, provided 
that the degree of Doctor of Medicine shall in no case be conferred on any per- 
son who shall not have attended two full courses of lectures in the institute, or 
one course in some other respectable medical college or university, and one in 
the institute in addition to the usual term of private instruction required by 
other institutions of a like kind." 

By an act passed December 20, 1833, the name " The Medical Institute of 
the State of Georgia," was changed to "The Medical College of Georgia," 
which it has since retained. The act appropriated $10,000 " for the purpose of 
enabling the board of trustees of said institution to procure a suitable piece or 
lot of land, erect thereon such buildings, and make such other improvements 
as may be necessary for the various purposes of a medical college, and to pro- 
cure a suitable library, apparatus, and museum for said institution, and such 
other things as may be necessary to the proper and successful operation of the 
same " It was also provided that fifty lots on the town commons of Augusta, 
to be designated by the city council, should be sold and the proceeds paid over 
to the college. 

By an act passed in 1826 the Bank of Augusta was empowered to increase 
its capital stock up to $600,000, one-si.xth of any increase made to be reserved 
to the State at par up to the end of the legislative session next ensuing such 
increase, and by act of December 23, 1835, the Medical College of Georgia 
was given the same rights of priority and all advantage derivable therefrom as 
to the increased stock of this bank as the State had under the act of 1826. 

In 1835 the Medical College was erected, and from that time to the present 
has uninterruptedly continued its career of usefulness. For many years The 
Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, a professional publication of great 
merit, was published in connection with it by Drs. Paul F. Eve and Ignatius 
P. Garvin. While the present college building was not erected till 1835, the 
work of instruction began at an earlier period, and the list of graduates dates 
as far back as 1829. P'rom that time to the present, the college has sent forth 
1,675 graduates — from Georgia, 1,264; South Carolina, 222 ; Alabama, 135 ; 
Florida, 13 ; Texas, 12 ; Mississippi, 8; North Carolina, 5; Tennessee, 4 ; and 
Arkansas, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New York, 
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and West Virginia, one each. 



The Medical Profession. 255. 

Shortly after the completion of the Medical College, Augusta was visited 
with an epidemic which severely taxed the strength and skill of its physicians. 
On the 8th of June, 1839, ^ number of members of a family residing on the 
river near Lincoln street, were attacked by a virulent disease taken at the time 
to be a remittent fever. On the 5th of July a laborer who had been working 
in the same vicinity was attacked in the same way ; then a little boy who had 
been playing in the locality, was taken with like symptoms and died in a few 
days, his skin turning yellow toward the close of his illness and developing 
large purple blotches shortly after death Sundry like cases then occurred in 
that portion of the city adjacent to the first cases, and finally on August 19th 
the physicians of the city were summoned into consultation by the mayor. 
Up to this time no such disease had been known in Augusta within the mem- 
ory of man, but forty cases had occurred, the development was now rapid, and 
it was clear that an epidemic prevailed. The disease was pronounced yellow 
fever. From this time on it ran the usual course of this dreadful disease, in- 
creasing in virulence until on November 8, terminating by a black or killing 
frost. There were from 1,500 to 2,000 cases, and 240 deaths. In the Au- 
gusta Chronicle of November 11, 1839, "1^7 t)^ seen the list of the victims. 

On the 13th of November, at a meeting of the physicians of Augusta, Dr. 
A. Cunningham was called to the chair, and Dr. Paul F. Eve appointed secre- 
tary. The following resolution offered by Dr. F. M. Robertson was unani- 
mously adopted. 

" Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed to enquire into the 
origin and causes which gave rise to the late epidemic in Augusta." 

Doctors F. M. Robertson, I. P. Garvin, and Paul F. Eve were appointed 
that committee, and on December 10, 1839, made their report. This report 
is one of the most valuable contributions known to the literature of that dreaded 
scourge, yellow fever. In 1877 it was ordered reprinted by the City Council. 
The committee say they considered the question submitted them from two 
standpoints, viz : 

" I. Was the cause of the late epidemic introduced into our city from for- 
eign sources ? 

"II. Did it arise from local causes; and if so, what were those causes?" 

Those believing the disease imported were of three classes. The first be- 
lieved it introduced and spread by contagion ; the second considered that the 
atmosphere was in a vitiated condition, and that the introduction of one case 
sufficed to impart an epidemic constitution to an already vitiated air ; and the 
third class attributed the introduction of the disease to some decayed tropical 
fruit at that time thrown on the market. The committee take up these three 
theories in the order named, and discuss them with signal care, skill, and 
abiHty. As to the supposition that the disease was introduced and spread by 
contagion, their argument is so unanswerable that it has now passed into a 



256 History of Augusta. 



medical axiom that yellow fever is not contagious. We give a brief synopsis 
of the report on this interesting and important point. On July 27 two per- 
sons arrived from Charleston, then suffering from an epidemic of yeJlow fever, 
or, as we learn from the report, as it was then called, " stranger's fever," and 
on the 31st of July, a third, all unwell. No other sick person arrived from 
Charleston prior or subsequent to those dates, so that if these parties did not 
introduce or spread the disease, it did not arise from contagion. Of the two 
persons arriving on July 27, one died with all the symptoms of yellow fever. 
The other was at once removed to the extreme western portion of the city and 
recovered. The person arriving on the 31st also recovered. Many persons 
visited these patients and in fact one was quartered at a hotel, but no case of 
yellow fever could be traced to such contact or proximity. The western por- 
tion of the city to which one of the patients had been removed as stated, de- 
veloped no fever till a long subsequent period in the history of the epidemic. 
Having thus treated of the only known imported cases, and shown that no 
contagion could be traced to them, the committee refers to the fact that the 
first arrival from Charleston was on July 27, and then specifies by name and 
date eleven cases occurring in the city prior to that date, adding that numerous 
other cases could be mentioned had it been deemed necessary. The report 
then proceeds to give the localities in which the bulk of the cases occurring 
prior to August 19, when the disease was declared epidemic, were found, and 
demonstrates that they were not contiguous to the places where the Charles- 
ton cases were located, but lay in a close radius about the house on the river 
where on June 8th the first case was discovered. On these facts the committee 
submit "that the epidemic had commenced, fairly and decidedly, before the 
introduction of a single case of disease from Charleston must be evident to 
every unprejudiced mind." 

The report then takes up another argument advanced in favor of the theory 
of contagion, namely that a number of persons who nursed the sick were them- 
selves attacked. As an answer to this it is shown that where the sick were 
removed out of the infected district, not one single person engaged in nursing 
a patient was known to have had the disease ; and the conclusion is drawn 
that it was not proximity to the sick, but habitancy in the infected district 
which subjected the attendant to the malady. "This we consider an unan- 
swerable argument," says the report, against the contagious nature of the pre- 
vailing fever. If the disease was contagious, how could a removal of the sick- 
half a mile or more from the infected part of the city, deprive it of its conta- 
gious properties ? On the grounds of contagion this cannot be explained, but 
considering the disease of miasmatic origin, the fact is easily accounted for. 
Those who nursed the sick in the infected district were exposed — and that, 
too, at the worst period of the twenty- four hours — to the same miasmatic 
exhalations that had produced the disease in the patient. When the patient 



The Medical Profession. 257 

was removed, however, to an atmosphere free from the malarial poison, the 
nurses escaped, though they were exposed to the exhalations from the dis- 
eased body of the patient, who often expired in the most frightful agonies, 
with black vomit, hemorrhage, and all the evidences of extreme putridity." 
The committee then instanced one remarkable case where there was no com- 
munication whatever with the sick. A criminal under sentence of death in the 
jail, immured in a cell, and having seen no one but the jailer and turnkey, was 
the first person in prison who took the disease. Again, after the first black 
frost, which occurred on November 8, great numbers of the citizens returned 
to the city. If the disease could spread by contagion, why was it not commu- 
nicated to some of them by the numerous cases then still under treatment. 

The report next takes up reports made by eminent physicians of Charles- 
ton, Norfolk, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York on the yellow fever in 
those cities. In 1839 the fever prevailed in Charleston as it did in Augusta, 
and in the former city it was a general impression that it had been introduced 
by a vessel called the BiirniaJt. On October 18, 1839, Dr. T. Y. Simons, 
chairman of the Charleston Board of Health, read before that body " a report 
of the history and causes of the strangers or yellow fever, of Charleston," in 
the course of which he says : " The fever having occurred so earl)^ in the sea- 
son and so soon after its occurrence on the Burtnah, created suspicion of con- 
tagion in the minds of some, but I could not, upon the minutest investigation, 
come to that conclusion, and a committee appointed by the Medical Society, 
after making a minute and thorough investigation, came to the conclusion 
that the fever was not introduced by the BurniaJi or by contagion, but was 
produced by the peculiar condition of our atmosphere, in other words was 
epidemic and arose from causes among us." 

The committee here referred to was composed of Drs. A. Lopez, James 
Moultrie, E. Geddings, I. M. Campbell, Henry Winthrop and J. E. Holbiook, 
the president of the Medical Society. The following is from the report of that 
committee: "Your committee are therefore of opinion that the yellow fever 
which has prevailed and still continues this season, has its origin, not from con- 
tagion derivable from those cases imported in the ship BurniaJi on the 6th of 
June last, but from local and general causes." Dr. Geddings, chairman of this 
committee, in answer to a query from the chairman of the Augusta commit- 
tee, says : " I have never either in the epidemic of the present summer in 
Charleston, or in any of those which preceded it, observed a single fact or cir- 
cumstance favorable to the belief in any contagious property. On the con- 
trary I have witnessed the most free and unlimited intercourse between the 
sick and those who might be considered subjects for the disease, without the 
latter being attacked." 

In speaking of the yellow fever as prevailing in Charleston in 1799, Dr. 
Ramsey, the eminent physician and historian, says : " We have no reason to 
33 



258 History of Augusta. 



believe that the yellow fever was imported among us, or communicated by 
contagion. Strangers who left the city and afterwards sickened and died in 
the country, were not the occasion of death, or even disease to those who at- 
tended them in their last illness." In writing in 1800 to Dr. Miller, of New 
York, Dr. Ramsey says : " The disputes about the origin of yellow fever which 
have agitated the Northern States, have never existed in Charleston. There 
is but one opinion among the physicians and inhabitants, and that is that the 
disease was neither imported nor contagious. This was the unanimous senti- 
ment of the Medical Society, who, in pursuance of it, gave their opinion to the 
government last summer, that the rigid enforcement of the quarantine laws 
was by no means necessary on account of yellow fever." 

In Norfolk the fever had frequently prevailed at the date of the report now 
under consideration, and a report or certificate dated October 12, 1801, and 
signed by Drs. Taylor, Hansford, Selden, and Whitehead is quoted as follows : 
" We do hereby certify that the malignant yellow fever, which prevailed with 
violence for some time past, has now nearly ceased, and that the health of the 
town appears to be improving daily. We know of no instance in which the 
disease has been communicated by contagion." 

In a report made in 1800 by the medical faculty of Baltimore to the mayor 
of that city in reference to the yellow fever prevalent there in the summer of 
that year, they say: " After the most scrutinizing investigation the faculty find 
no proof, or even cause of suspicion, that the fever which lately so unhappily 
afflicted our city was derived from foreign causes." 

The celebrated Dr. Rush, of Philadelphia, was in the early part of his ca- 
reer of the opinion that yellow fever was contagious, but in his later years, and 
as the result of the most careful investigation and study, publicly announced 
that he had arrived at the opposite conclusion. In 1793, 1794, and 1797 the 
fever desolated Philadelphia, and Dr. Rush based his later opinion on his ex- 
perience of the disease from practical observation, his original idea of infec- 
tiousness being derived from the works of some West India writers, and there- 
,fore purely theoretical. 

In 1803 the yellow fever prevailed in New York, and Drs. Miller and Mit- 
chell of that city say : " The first public alarm took place from some deaths 
about the Coffee House slip, and in that neighborhood, where from the num- 
.ber and malignity of the cases, the atmosphere must have been charged with 
miasmata of great virulence ;" also, " many aged and young persons, whose 
•condition imposed confinement in their houses, without the occurrence of any 
preceding case in the families, were attacked with the disease in its most viru- 
lent form. Multitudes also took the disease who had not previously appoached 
any sick person, any suspected vessel, or any families allowed to be imbued 
with contagion." The report then instances Galliopolis in Ohio where many 
deaths occurred in 1797, when there was no communication with Atlantic 



The Medical Profession. 259 

ports, but the place was remarkable for " the filthiness of the inhabitants, and 
an unusual quantity of animal and vegetable putrefaction in a number of small 
ponds and marshes within the village." In the same year New Design, a small 
inland town of Missouri, containing a population of about two hundred, lost 
fifty- seven by yellow fever, whereas no person had arrived at it from any in- 
fected place within the year preceding. 

The report then says : "If we examine minutely the history of yellow fever, 
wherever it has prevailed, we find that it invariably obeys most of the laws 
which govern other miasmatic diseases. It has usually commenced its ravages 
during the heat of summer, increased its violence as the season advanced, and 
ceased as soon as the temperature ranged below a given point, or after a severe 
frost. Contagious diseases conform to none of these laws. What climate, 
what temperature, or what season can arrest the ravages of smallpox, for in- 
stance ? " 

The committee then takes up the second theory of the origin of the dis- 
ease, namely that the atmosphere was in a vitiated condition and that the in- 
troduction of one foreign case was the match to the magazine. It considers it 
an unanswerable argument against this view that the disease was at first con- 
fined to one spot and spread gradually thence so that it was late in the season 
before it had progressed from the eastern part of the city where it first devel- 
oped to the western portion, then about half a mile or so. The theory of the 
decayed West India fruit is found unworthy of serious mention. Such fruit is 
found all over the country every season, with no fever as a concomitant. 

The report then proceeds to consider the second great question, " did the 
fever arise from local causes, and if so, what were those causes." The commit- 
tee find that is was not any peculiar filthiness in the lots where the disease first 
appeared, they being up to the standard of the city's cleanliness. Nor was it any 
accumulation of water infused with filth on those lots, they lying low, such accu- 
mulations being a frequent occurrence before without evil results, and more- 
over, this particular season being extremely dry, no rain falling for seventy- 
one days. Nor was it the unusual lowness of the river exposing banks of slime, 
etc., the bed as exposed being "a beautiful sandy gravel, containing scarcely 
any remains of either animal or vegetable matter"; and in 1830 the river was 
equally low, with perfect health prevailing. Nor was the fever caused by cer- 
tain rotten cotton seed or decayed bacon, or the rank growth of the morns 
rmdticaulis as variously supposed, the bacon being at a point distant from the 
first seat of the disease, the morus growth thickest in that portion of the city 
last to feel the epidemic, and the cotton seed, a subordinate factor, if an opera- 
tive factor at all, to the real origin. That origin the committee finds in what 
was known as the city trash pile, that is, an enormous accumulation of the ref- 
use of the city in the river at the foot of Lincoln street. In April, 1834, the 
city council voted "that there be constructed a slide or platform on the river 



26o History of Augusta. 



bank for the purpose of throwing the dirt and rubbish collected by the street 
officer clear of the bank into the river." The platform was erected on piling, 
projected one hundred and ten feet into the river from the edge of the bank, 
and was forty-five feet high from the bed of the river. The street officers' carts 
laden with all the animal and vegetable matter collected from the different lots 
and yards of the city daily, were drawn to the end and sides of this platform 
and emptied in the river. Thus commenced the accumulation in 1834. At 
first, this collection was cleared away from time to time down to the water's 
edge, but finally this was neglected. An old boat lodged against the pile 
which prevented the water sweeping under the platform, and in 1869 the mass 
amounted to over 200,000 cubic feet. Malaria arising from the dissolution of 
vegetable and animal matter, especially the former, what a magazine of death 
was here! In April, 1839, the city directed the accumulation removed, and the 
use of the platform discontinued. The contractor who undertook the removal 
of the filth only partially did his work. The accumulation was so high that the 
workmen could step from the platform on to it, and the plan of removal was to 
dig down into it and throw it broadcast into the river. During the operations 
of the workmen as they penetrated into the interior, the heat evolved was so 
great that tliey were compelled to desist from work for two hours at a time, 
though they wore thick shoes. When the contractor had leveled it off as far 
as possible there still remained 117,000 cubic feet, which had been concealed 
for years, and now first since its deposit saw the light of day. The river con- 
tinuing to fall exposed those portions of the mass which had been leveled otT 
and thrown into it. For its measurements the committee could vouch having 
had an accurate survey made by a competent engineer. The first leveling off 
was completed by May 29. On June 8th the first cases of fever developed in 
the neighborhood of the pile. The nearest family was taken, a second removal 
was ordsrod, which was completed on July 2, with the result of exposing fresh 
festering surfaces. On July 5, one of the workmen was prostrated with fever, 
and on the same day a little boy who had been playing about the platform. 
On the 7th there were two more cases, another on the 14th, two more on the 
l6th, and then others in rapid succession before the arrival of the first infected 
person from Charleston. Efforts were made to cover the trash pile with earth) 
but it was too late; tlie atmosphere was already impregnated with the mias- 
matic poison, and more )ver the portions of the filth which had been cast into 
the river reniaineJ uncovered. The direction of the wind was from the trash 
pile towards the parts of the town affected, and as the direction varied, new dis- 
tricts lying in the charged track became infected, gradually poisoning the whole 
city. 

On all the facts collectible in a most laborious examination the committee 
came to two conclusions, which they embody in resolutions. • 

" I. Resolved, That from the facts disclosed in the foregoing report, we are 



The Medical Profession. 261 

of opinion that the cause of the late epidemic was not introduced into our city 
in any manner whatever from foreign sources, nor do we believe the disease 
to have exhibited, in the slightest degree, a contagious nature. 

"2. Resolved^ That in our opinion the cause of the late epidemic arose from 
the accumulation at the upper ' trash wharf,' between Lincoln and Elbert 
streets, of upwards of 200,000 cubic feet of vegetable and animal matter, col- 
lected from the lots and streets pf the city since the year 1834, which was 
opened and exposed to the action of the sun in the months of May and June 
last." 

The report and resolutions were then adopted. 

While there has been subsequent medical dissent from one of the positions 
taken in this valuable report, it may be regarded as settling the question of con- 
tagion or infection in the sense in which smallpox is contagious. A modern 
view is that there is a yellow fever microbe or germ, which when meeting an 
atmosphere prepared for its reception flourishes like a rank, poisonous weed. 
One striking point in the report is the evidence that it affords that Au- 
gusta was never visited by yellow fever till 1839, o^" ^O'' iriore than a century 
from its foundation. A third resolution reported by the committee urges the 
citizens to be warned of " deleterious consequences arising from a general neg- 
lect of cleanliness, which, for some years past has been too common in our city, 
owing to its 2inprecede7ited state of health^ In his letter, heretofore mentioned, 
to Dr. Geddings of Charleston, the chairman of the committee says: "The irrup- 
tion of a malignant disease in a community unaccustomed to such a visitation." 
In 1854 Augusta was again visited with yellow fever. On the i6th of Sep- 
tember the disease was declared epidemic, and the bulk of the population fled, 
as in 1839, to the Sand Hills, the piney woods and other salubrious resorts so 
plentiful near the city. Despite this depopulation, the fever vindicated its fear- 
ful name. We have heard from an eye-witness that the dead were even car- 
ried to the grave in wheelbarrows for lack of vehicles. 

In a medical point of view the epidemic of 1839 had been of service to the 
world. From the observations then made it became confirmed as an axiom 
that yellow fever was not contagious in the sense of personal communication 
like, for instance, smallpox. The outbreak of 1854 had also its uses. It will 
be remembered that in the celebrated report of the Augusta physicians of 1839, 
it had been argued, and with great power, that the fever was of local origin and 
had not been imported or communicated from Charleston, then infected. The 
origin was then traced to a noxious mass of animal and vegetable decomposi- 
tion on the river bank, and the disease was traced in its course from the first 
cases, occurring in that vicinage, until it radiated throughout the city. The ob- 
servations of 1854 confirmed the conclusion of 1839 of the non-contagiousness 
of yellow fever, but led to a very careful examination of the doctrine of local 
-origin, with the result of evolving a theory that yellow fever is of exotic origin, 



262 History of Augusta. 



has no native habitat in the United States, and only effects a foothold by trans- 
portation of a germ or spore. This theory was advanced as early as 1856 by 
Dr. Henry F. Campbell, an eminent Augusta physician, at the seventh annual 
meeting of the Medical Society of the State of Georgia, held in Macon, and has 
since in several 'valuable papers been enlarged upon by him. The substance of 
his views is about as follows: From 1768 to 1838 there had been some twenty- 
seven visitations of yellow fever in Charleston, but one hundred and thirty- six 
miles distant from Augusta, and yet up to 1839 there had been no yellow fever 
in Augusta. In 1833 a system of railway communication had been opened be- 
tween Charleston and Hamburg, lying immediately across the Savannah River 
from Augusta, and by 1839 ^^^s in full operation, the distance which by stage 
had taken several days to traverse being now covered in some few hours. In 
1839 the fever raged in Charleston; no check was placed on the running of 
railway trains out of the infected city to Hamburg, and that year the fever for 
the first time appeared in Augusta. Did not these facts point to a transmis- 
sion of the disease from Charleston to Augusta by rail. The possibility of con- 
tagion being communicated by personal contact had been shown not to exist. 
In all former epidemics in Charleston fugitives had found their way to Augusta 
by the slow staging, and yet no residents of Augusta had been attacked, though 
the fugitive himself not unfrequently died in the city with the disease in its 
most malignant form. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION. CONCLUDED. 

The Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1854 — Portability of Fever Germ— Dr. Campbell's Theory 
of Quarantine— Board of Health— The Sewer System— Decrease in Death RaXt— Southern 
Medical and Surgical Journal — Eminent Physicians — Milton Antony — Fendall — Cunning- 
ham— Watkins— Carter — Garvin — Newton — Dugas — Ford— Eve — Augusta's Present Faculty. 

AGAIN, from 1807 to 1854 the yellow fever had visited Savannah seven 
times, and yet there had been no outbreak in Augusta contemporaneous 
with one in Savannah, but in 1854 communication by rail was established be- 
tween Savannah and Augusta. In that year the fever became epidemic in the 
former, and after it had there obtained a firm fo6thold, appeared in the latter 
city. Again, it was the fact that a distance formerly consuming days was now 
traversed in a few hours. No restraint was placed on trains leaving infected 
Savannah for uninfected Augusta ; and behold the uninfected city becomes 
infected. Did not this, also, tend to show the portability of a fever germ ? 



The Medical Profession. 263 

Still, further, Macon was placed in railway communication with seaports, 
and the fever appears where it had never appeared before ; and yet again, such 
was the sequence in the case of Memphis and other far inland centers, of late 
years so piteously devastated. 

Certain specific instances occurring in the epidemic of 1854 seem to point, 
as with a finger, to the existence and portability of a yellow fever germ. At 
Union point, a station on the Georgia Railroad seventy- six miles from Augusta, 
and in an elevated pine region celebrated for its salubrity, a Mr. Lampkin and 
his wife both died. Mr. Lampkin was transportation agent at that point, and in 
discharge of his duty daily entered the freight cars arriving from fever-stricken 
Augusta ; his wife was daily in the passenger cars serving refreshments. Why 
should these residents of so healthy a region perish of yellow fever unless the 
railway had carried the germ out of Augusta, and in their daily routine they 
were peculiarly exposed to its influences? In 1876 the fever obtained a foot- 
hold in Savannah, and at Oliver, a point on the Central Railroad, forty-five 
miles from that city, all the railway employees about the depot who slept in 
the freight cars arriving from Savannah were attacked with the fever; those 
who slept in other places were not attacked. A young farmer of the neigh- 
borhood, who had not been near Savannah during the season, slept in a pas- 
senger car left over night at Oliver; eight days afterwards he died of yellow 
fever. In 1877 the fever prevailed in Fernandina, Fla., and a gentleman fled 
thence to Augusta with his family and effects. The father soon died of the fever. 
About that time one daughter opened the trunks which had been packed in 
and brought from Fernandina, and some time after was attacked with the fever, 
and then in rapid succession every other member of the family was taken. 
The disease did not extend beyond the household. In 1854, after several 
black frosts had put an end to the epidemic, there were a number of new cases 
in Augusta, all confined to returned refugees who on reaching home had 
opened wardrobes, trunks, bookcases, and other receptacles which had been 
<;losed when the owner fled. 

Dr. Campbell, therefore, lays down as two fundamental principles, the fol- 
lowing: 

" First. That the poison or product giving rise to the assemblage of phe- 
nomena and sequences which are known to constitute yellow fever, is an exotic 
readily importable into this country and, after importation, transportable from 
one region to another. 

" Secondly. That yellow fever is not in any of its stages communicable from 
one person to another after the manner or according to the rationale of ordi- 
nary contagion." 

In support of these propositions he enters on a comparison of the old and 
new methods of transit, saying : 

" First, that the yellow fever refugee, from the coast or elsewhere, travel- 



264 History of Augusta. 



ing slowly, as in times past, by stage or private conveyance, with compara- 
tively little baggage, though he brings with him in his blood a full supply of 
yellow fever germs or poison sufficient to produce in him all its phenomena^ 
and among them black vomit and death, has never been known, whether he 
was overtaken by the wayside, in the pine woods, or in the crowded city, to 
communicate the disease to others, or to infect the air of the inland community 
in which he had fallen. 

" While, secondly, the yellow fever refugee of the present time, coming in 
the rapid transit of a few hours by railroad, and bringing with him often the 
largest Saratoga trunks of porous baggage that had been packed and closed in 
the infected atmosphere, has brought with him, besides the germs circulating 
in his own veins — proved to be innocuous to all but himself — he has, I say, 
besides these blood-germs, brought with him a vast multitude of propagating 
atmospheric germs, in all their activity and capacity, to poison all who may 
directly imbibe them, and to rapidly propagate poison in the atmosphere of 
the entire locality. 

" In the first case the ventilation incident to several days of travel had re- 
moved from his scanty baggage and wearing apparel, probably, all yellow 
fever germs that were capable of communicating disease ; only the poison 
which he carried in his own blood remained, and this could infect no other 
person nor poison the air. In the case of the modern or railroad traveler, the 
immense volumes of germ-laden air in the passenger train, and still more in 
the boxed- up freight cars, besides what is brought in the trunks, must inevit- 
ably insure widespread atmospheric infection, and a widespread epidemic. 
Even though the air of the invaded locality may be what is called ' pure,' it 
cannot often escape vitiation ; when it may be what is called ' foul,' propaga- 
tion and an epidemic are simply inevitable." 

Dr. Campbell finds the great preventive measure in quarantine on correct 
principles, outlining the same thus: 

" First. Allow no railroad train or car, whether for passengers or freight, 
coming from an infected locality, to approach within many miles of any healthy 
or uninfected town or city. 

" Secondly. Meet these trains at some undoubedly safe distance from their 
place of destination by fresh cars for both passengers and freight. 

" Third. A careful and discriminating surveillance to be maintained over the 
baggage of passengers and over the freight in order to determine what will be 
safe, after ventilation and other means of disinfection, to be taken on the fresh 
cars. Porous articles and closed tnmks being most objectionable till disin- 
fected. 

'• Fourth. That passengers have free passport into, and refuge in, any city, 
town, village, or other communit\', without hindrance on account of their 
physical condition in relation to their supposed or manifested inception of 



The Medical Profession. 265 



yellow fever poison. Long exposure in yellow fever atmosphere, attendance 
on the sick, actual fever and black vomit should be no bar or hindrance, on 
account of infection, to the free passage of persons seeking refuge for them- 
selves and families from yellow fever. 

" Fifth. To secure the privilege and benefits of the unrestricted travel con- 
templated by the modified quarantine, all persons must submit to such pro- 
visions as may be deemed necessary by the sanitary officers. Baths and 
change of apparel may be exacted, but simple ventilation only will in most 
cases suffice. 

^ "Sixth. In the establishment of a modified quarantine on the above system- 
atized method, arrangements on the most liberal and enlightened scale will be 
required. Officers of intelligence and high character only should be appointed 
to superintend and carry out the details of the plan. Whether buildings tem- 
porary or permanent will be required, and whether municipal. State, or national 
sanitary authorities are best to have charge of its conduct, only experience in 
an untried method can determine. An efficient and easy-working system can 
only gradually and by slow progress be perfected." 

By resolution of November 13, 1879, the Augusta Medical Society accepted 
these views as follows : 

" Resolved, That the yellow fever quarantine of the present time should be 
so modified as no longer to exclude persons coming from infected regions from 
taking refuge in healthy localities ; baggage, clothing, trunks, and boxes be- 
mg strictly excluded and every detail being minutely systematized on this prin- 
ciple." 

In 1877 the Legislature provided for a board of health for the city of Au- 
gusta, and by subsequent acts enlarged its powers. It consists of one citizen 
from each ward, two physicians from the city at large, a chemist, and the 
mayor and health committee of the city council, and has plenary powers over 
the subjects of sanitation and public health. It has a president, a secretary, 
and one inspector for each ward. It is authorized to institute all sanitary 
measures necessary to the preservation of the public health, or to prevent the 
generation or introduction of infectious and contagious diseases, and to regu- 
late the subject of quarantine in its discretion. The ordinances of the board 
on the subjects committed to it have the force of law, and all violations there- 
of are cognizable in the Recorder's Court. When it declares a quarantine, any 
violation of such quarantine is cognizable in the State courts. The board has 
also control of the sewerage and drainage systems of the city, but the construc- 
tion of new works requires the concurrence of the city council ; and has a su- 
pervisory jurisdiction over all public institutions in the city as respects sanita- 
tion. In the matter of quarantine and disinfection the board has authority to 
establish quarantine stations not exceeding forty miles from the city, and to 
prescribe regulations as to the transportation of freights to, or through the city 
34 ^' 



266 History of Augusta. 



and as to the ventilation, disinfecting, and cleaning of all boats, cars, engines^ 
and vehicles reaching the city; the penalty for infraction of such rules by indi- 
viduals being a fine not to exceed $i,ooo, imprisonment in jail not to exceed 
six months, or confinement in the chain gang not exceeding twelve months; 
any one or more of such punishments in the discretion of the court, and by 
corporations a fine not exceeding $5,000. The salary of the president of the 
board is $1,200 per annum, of the secretary $400, and there are five sanitary 
inspectors, each receiving $50 per month. The cost of the board averages 
$5,000 per year. There are 7,068 lots in the city, about the same number of 
water closets and surface privies, and forty miles of sewers and surface drains. 
It is the duty of the inspectors to see that the lots are kept clean, and that all 
the sanitary regulations respecting the sewers, drains, etc., are conformed to. 
In 1886 they discovered and had abated 12,461 nuisances injurious to 
health. It has been found that under the board the construction of sewers and 
drains has been not only more scientifically carried on, but much more econ- 
omically, as, for instance, in 1886, it constructed 6,706 feet of side drains at 
9y cents per foot, which had previously cost the city 28|^ cents. It has also 
been found that it could construct from three to five feet of sewer for the price 
formerly paid for one. This economy has been the result of judicious reduc- 
tion in the size of sewers, the substitution of pipe for bricks, and the construc- 
tion of work by contract under competitive bids. The practical value of the 
board's labors is shown in a marked reduction of the city's death rate. From 
1 87 1 to 1879, inclusive, it was 30 in the 1,000. From 1880 to 1885 it was 24; 
a decreased death rate equal to 210 lives per annum. The death rate of 1886 
was 23.38 ; and for 1887 but 21.33, the smallest ever known in the city. 

On the organization of the board of health Dr. L. D. Ford was made pres- 
ident and continued in office until 1880, when he, Drs. Dugas and Rains re- 
signed. During the times these gentlemen remained in office they each ren- 
dered great and valuable service to the sanitary interests of the city. The 
minutes of the board show numerous able and voluminous papers presented 
by them on various questions of hygiene, as, for instance, sewerage, drain- 
age, quarantine, disposal of household wastes, garbage, excreta, etc. In 1878 
several families were stricken down with typhoid fever, attacking nearly every 
member of each household. Through their physicians the board of health Avas 
appealed to investigate the causes of the fever. A committee, consisting of 
Drs. L. D. Ford, L. A. Dugas, and G. W. Rains, was appointed. In prose- 
cuting their duties they found that the fever was caused by the frightfully 
filthy condition of the Elbert street sewer, which was but an elongated cess- 
pool filled to nearly one-half of its diameter with mud, stagnant water, kitchen 
slops and human excreta. The committee recommended the cleansing, flush- 
ing and disinfection of the sewer. The committee was then charged with the 
duty of opening and examining the condition of every sewer in Augusta, and 



The Medical Profession. 267 

in 1878 made the following report : "After full discussion we are unanimously 
of the opinion that all these sewers (referring to the then system) are viciously 
located, improperly constructed, and as to their influence upon the public 
health, your committee here express the opinion, without going into details, 
that they are now damaging the health of our citizens, with the prospect of 

great danger in the future Your committee do but justify their 

sober judgment in declaring their conviction that malignity, plotting mischief 
against the citizens of Augusta, urged by disciplined ingenuity, could not have 
spent the large amount of money, the cost of these sewers, in any way better 
for its purpose than in building them." This report was signed by Drs. L. 
D. Ford, L. A. Dugas and G. W. Rains. These gentlemen urged immediate 
action in removing faulty sewers, and a complete system. Dr. G. W. Rains 
submitted an elaborate plan for a complete system of sewers and drains, which 
the board adopted, and recommended council to put in execution. In 1879 
1879 President Ford stated to the board that the report had been received by 
the council without any action ; " therefore," said he, " I have called you to- 
gether to consider if any or what action you will take to relieve the board of 
health from the responsibility which is still resting upon them." Failing in 
their efforts to secure prompt support from council, Drs. Ford, Dugas and 
Rains resigned membership in the board of health. Council requested these 
gentlemen to withdraw their resignations. This they declined to do. Council 
then elected Drs. Eugene Foster, V. G. Hitt, and G. H. Winkler as their suc- 
cessors. Dr. Foster was unanimously elected president of the board of health, 
and has three times since been unanimously elected to that position, his last 
•election being in 1888. The president bi^ the board of health promptly took 
up the sewerage question where it had been left by Dr. Ford, and persistently 
pressed the matter upon the attention of the council. The city engineer was 
instructed to begin at once to open each sewer in the city and fully report its 
condition, size, shape, grades, connections, and outlet. Upon receiving the 
report of the engineer, the board of health promptly condemned as a nuisance 
injurious to health every sewer shown by his report to be such. The board 
of health fully concurred in the report of President Ford, in his annual report 
for 1879, in which he said : " It condemned these sewers in almost every par- 
ticular — that they were vicious and dangerous in their location, vicious in their 
construction, and injurious to the public health; that they were built in viola- 
tion of the settled principles of sanitary science ; that, by whomsoever built, 
they were left a legacy of evil to the city, and should be removed as soon as 
possible." Dr. Foster insisted that the present sewerage and drainage sys- 
tems should be examined by a sanitary engineer of undoubted ability, and 
plans presented for a complete system. To this purpose he suggested that 
Colonel G. E. Waring, a world renowned sanitary engineer, be invited to Au- 
gusta. This suggestion was adopted, and Colonel Waring, in 1880, began the 



268 History of Augusta. 

work of examining the then sewerage and drainage systems, and, after fully 
examining the problem, rendered to the board of health his report, in which 
he condemned as a whole the then sewer system, and recommended a system 
of pipe sewers (similar to that of Memphis, Tenn.), with an outlet sewer from 
corner of Taylor and Twiggs streets through Twiggs to Watkins street, through 
Watkins to East Boundary, and through East Boundary street to the river. 
The board of health decided not to recommend to council the Waring system' 
until it had obtained further expert opinious on the question, and recommended 
council to employ Dr. Azel Ames, of Boston, Mass., another noted sanitary 
engineer, to examine and report upon the question. This was done by the 
council. Dr. Ames promptly began the work and submitted plans and details 
therefor in May, i88i. Dr. Ames's paper, like Colonel Waring's, recom- 
mended the abolition of the then existing sewers, and the substitution there- 
for of a system of pipe sewer, with a main outlet sewer commencing at inter- 
section of Savannah road and Ninth street, through Twiggs to Watkins, through 
Watkins to East Boundary, thence northward to the river. Second outlet 
sewer through Greene to East Boundary, thence to the river. 

Dr. Ames's report also embraced the subject of increased water supply. 
He recommended locating the pumps at Rae's Creek, and taking the water 
supply from the lake. The sewerage system proposed by Dr. Ames was by 
him estimated to cost $220,000, and the increased water supply — giving the 
city 5,000,000 gallons of water daily — $70,000, making the sewerage and 
waterworks system cost $290,000. The board of health and council adopted 
the plans of Dr. Ames, and council, being charged with the duty of providing 
the ways and means, decided to submit the question to the voters of the city 
and ask authority to expend $400,000 if necessary, in constructing these im- 
portant works. At a special election held July 8, 1881, the citizens, by a more 
than two-thirds vote, sustained the proposition to construct these works, and 
issue $400,000 in bonds to pay therefor. An injunction was sued out against 
the issue of these bonds, and upon being carried before the Supreme Court it 
decided that to issue the proposed bonds would violate that provision of the 
State constitution which prohibited any city with a bonded debt equal to seven 
per cent, of its taxable property from incurring any new bonded debt. Thus 
halted in its work, the board of health was forced to rebuild, remodel and per- 
fect the existing sewers as best it could from money to be annually appropri- 
ated by the council. This has from year to year been done as speedily as 
possible. The board of health, under recommendation of its president, adopted 
a comprehensive plan of sewerage and drainage, and that all work done should 
be a part of the complete system, and $10,000 annually has been expended on 
this important work. Dr. W. H. Doughty, a member of the board, having in 
view the idea previously suggested by Colonel Rains, and adopted by consult- 
ing engineers Waring and Ames, of delivering the sewage in the river north 



The Medical Profession. 269 

of the city, instead of into the swamps on the south of it, submitted to the 
board of health, in 1883, a plan for an outlet sewer for the eastern and south- 
eastern section of the city extending as far west as Mcintosh street. Dr. 
Doughty's plan recommended an outlet sewer running through Walton street 
to east boundary and thence northward to the river, the grade to be twenty feet 
at third canal level, and to be constantly irrigated with a stream of eighteen 
inches from the canal. The board of health and city engineer found that the 
plan suggested by Dr. Doughty was not feasible under the grade and eleva- 
tion suggested by him, and the board, upon advice of the engineer, changed 
the route suggested by Dr. Doughty, and turned the course of the sewer north- 
ward to the river through Houston street, thereby greatly curtailing the cost, 
and also lowered the proposed grade four feet, thereby rendering the proposed 
plan practicable. The engineer and board of health decided to build the sewer 
six feet internal diameter, so as to make it practicable for an outlet for all 
sewers as far west as McKinnnie street. The city engineer estimated the cost 
of the proposed sewer at $38,978.07. The board adopted the plan of Dr. 
Doughty as amended, and recommended to counci4 to promptly build it; coun- 
cil adopted the plan, and submitted it to a popular vote, and asked authority to 
levy a special tax of x of i P^r cent, for one year. The election was held 
February 27, 1884, and resulted in its adoption by a more than two-thirds 
vote. Council then appointed the mayor, president of board of health, and 
streets and drains committee of council, a commission to build the outlet sewer. 
This commission, with City Engineer Davidson, promptly began its labors 
and, as rapidly as possible, had this important structure completed. Upon 
completion of the sewer the commission found that it had built the structure 
for $10,000 less than the estimated cost, and more than five thousand dollars 
less than the bid of any responsible bidder for the work — certainly a rare ex- 
perience in constructing a public work. Since its completion two floods have 
fully tested its strength, and, in each instance, it successfully stood the enor- 
mous water pressure brought to bear upon it. The sewer system is a modifi- 
cation of what is known to engineers as the combined system, i. e., for con- 
duction of sewage and storm water. All sewers running southward are about 
thirty-six to forty-eight inches diameter and carry sewage and storm water, 
those running east and west are for conduction of sewage only — the storm 
water in these sections being carried by surface drains to the sewers running 
southward. By this latter plan the city will save fully a half million of dollars 
by the time the sewerage system shall have been completed. This plan is 
that suggested by the president of the board of health. All storm water passes 
through sand traps or pits before reaching a sewer, thus depositing the sand in 
the traps instead of in sewers. Manholes have been placed at intervals of three 
hundred feet in every sewer to readily admit of inspection of these conduits. 
Up to 1887 it was impossible to build sewers. in the section of the city be- 



270 History of Augusta. 



tween Twiggs, South Boundary and West Boundary streets and the canal, as 
no outlet sewer had been provided. In 1887 the president of the board pro- 
posed a plan for this latter structure, and, in consultation with City Engineer 
Davidson, submitted to the board of health plans and details therefor. These 
plans were adopted by the board of health and council, and the city council 
made an appropriation for building a part of this sewer in 1888. In a few days 
work will be begun upon this structure. When it is completed all sections of 
the city will be fully provided with outlet sewers, and the danger of discharg- 
ing sewage into the swamps south of the city to stagnate, and thereby injure 
the public health, will be removed. The lateral sewers can then be constructed 
from year to year as the city's finances will permit, and, when completed, 
Augusta will have a sewerage and drainage system equalled by few cities in 
America. When this important work is completed a marked decrease in our 
death rate will be observed. 

The good results of the sanitary measures adopted in Augusta are seen in 
a death rate now as low, as respects the white population, as any city in the 
country, while the total death rate has been decreased in a remarkable and en- 
couraging degree. 

From 1 87 1 to 1879, inclusive, the annual death rate of the total population 
was 30 per 1,000; from 1880 to 1888, inclusive, it was 23 91, showing a de- 
<a'ease of 6.09. This result has been achieved despite a heavy increase in density 
•of population, which always militates against healthfulness. Tlie population of 
the city being 37,000, it is demonstrable that the very efficient work of the board 
of health results in a saving of two hundred and twenty-two lives annually. 

For the period 1880 to 1888, inclusive, the following has been the relative 
death rate among white and colored populations: White, 17.36 per 1,000; col- 
ored, 33.90, the death rate among the colored population being nearly double 
that of the whites. During the period 1880 to 1888, inclusive, the death among 
the whites being only 17.36 per 1,000, it shows that for the whites the death rate 
is as low as in almost any other city in America. Further it appears that for the 
first five years of this period, 1880 to 1884, inclusive, the average annual death 
rate per 1,000 white population has been 18.81, while for the last four years, 
/. e. from 1885 to 1888, inclusive, it has been only 15.53, showing a constantly 
decreasing death rate among the white population amounting to 3.28 per 1,000 
annually. 

In 1887 a charter commission or select body of citizens empowered to in- 
vestigate the entire working of the city government in all its branches, thor- 
oughly examined the operations of the board of health, and reported as fol- 
lows : " We approve of and highly commend what has been done, and what is 
proposed by the board of health, and we take much pleasure in bearing testi- 
mony to the great skill and ability of Dr. Foster, to whose untiring energy and 
knowledge of the science of sanitation, the city is greatly indebted for the re- 



The Medical Profession. 271 

duction in the death rate of our city in the last six years, from 30 to 21.33 P^r 
1,000. We cannot speak in too much praise of such a work, or recommend 
too strongly that the powers of the board be increased so that the death rate 
may be more and more reduced." 

Of the Southern Medical and SurgicalJournalvci^xs.\\ox\ has been made sev- 
eral times in the course of this sketch of the medical profession of Augusta. It 
was the first publication of the kind in the South, except possibly one in New 
Orleans, and was begun in 1845 by Doctors Paul F. Eve and Ignatius P. Gar- 
vin, and conducted by them till 1851, when Dr. L. A. Dugas took charge. Dr. 
Dugas edited the Jojtrnal until 1856 by himself, and from that time until the 
war in conjunction with Dr. Henry Rossignol. During the war the publica- 
tion of the Journal was suspended, but after the war it was revived and con- 
tinued a short time under the charge of Doctors Dugas, Ford, and Doughty. 
The immense number of medical publications of recent times has, to a great 
extent, rendered such a journal unnecessary, but it was in its day of very great 
value, and is even now a rich treasury of medical learning. 

Of some of the eminent physicians of Augusta of the past we now speak. 
Dr. Milton Antony is a central figure in the medical annals of Georgia. He 
founded the medical college, and his ashes repose in the college yard. Dr. 
Antony was born in Wilkes county, Ga., in 1784, and had few, if any, educa- 
tional advantages. But the love of learning was in him, and by his own efibrts 
he wrought himself forward to the front rank of his noble profession. In 1822 
his name headed the list of members of "The Medical Society of Augusta, Geor- 
gia," and in 1825, when the Legislature created the State Board of Physicians, 
he was made one of its members. In 1828 the Legislature made him one of "the 
trustees of the Medical Academy of Georgia," the act authorizing the trustees 
to establish within the corporate limits of the city of Augusta a medical acad- 
emy for the State. At this time Dr. Antony in conjunction with Dr. Joseph A. 
Eve, one of his pupils, had a species of medical institute then in operation in 
connection with a hospital in the lower portion of Augusta, where the widow's 
home now is, but the inability to confer degrees probably crippled its useful- 
ness as an educational institution, and led to the passage of the act of 1828, and 
the acts of 1829 and 1833 already mentioned. In 1829 the name Medical 
Academy of Georgia was changed to " the Medical Institute of the State of 
Georgia," and that in turn in 1833 to the present style " The Medical College 
of Georgia." Of this institution Dr. Antony is undoubtedly the founder, his 
energies never relaxing till he had seen a substantial edifice erected and sup- 
plied with library and museum. While only surviving the founding of the col- 
lege five years, Dr. Antony had the satisfaction in that time of seeing it grad- 
uate sixty-two physicians. In the yellow fever epidemic of 1839 Dr. Antony 
lost his life, dying on September 19th of the prevailing disease, but laboring 
in his humane profession to the last. The fever broke out in August; it was 



272 



History of Augusta. 



its first appearance in the city; there were few, if any, experienced nurses; the 
faculty had little, if any, experience with such a malady, and it seems quite ap- 
parent from contemporaneous accounts that Dr. Antony put forth superhuman 
exertions in this terrible exigency, and so overtaxed his strength as to fall an 
easy victim to the plague. Even in those days of death and sorrow his demise 
was keenly felt and bitterly lamented. He was interred in the college grounds, 
and on the slab covering his grave is this inscription : 

" Mortale quicquid caduit hie depositum 

Milton Antony, M.D. 

Conditor collegi medici Georgiensis, 

Exegit monumentum sere perennius, 

Vixit annos quinquaginta, 

Obiit die xix. Septembris, 

A. D. MDCCCXXXIX." 

In the lecture- room of the college, on the right of the professorial rostrum 
is inserted in the wall a marble memorial tablet thus inscribed : 

" In Memory ot 

Milton Antony. M.D., 

Founder of this College. 

A niarlvr to humanity and the duties of his profession, 

During the fatal epidemic of 1839. 

Cheered by Religious Faith through the Griefs and Trials of this life, 

He passed from the cure of the sick to the sleep of the just. 

Amid the tears and blessings of the poor. 

True to his own favorite maxim, 

That a virtuous will is almost omnipotent, 

He overcame by study the defects of education 

And patiently toiling to eminence, bequeathed to Posterity 

A noble Example of Genius and Industry, 

Animated and directed by Patriotism and Benevolence." 

Dr. Thomas H. M. Kendall was a practicing physician in Augusta as early 
as 1808, and is probably the author of the call made in June of that year for a 
meeting of the faculty of the city for the purpose of forming a medical associa- 
tion. Dr. Fendall was still alive in 1822, as his name appears as one of the 
members of "the Medical Society of Augusta Ga.," incorporated in that year. 

Dr. Alexander Cunningham, vice-president of the society in 1822, was also 
a physician of eminence, and was in practice certainly up to 1839, as in that 
year we find him chairman of the meeting of physicians called to consider the 
origin of the yellow fever epidemic of that year's summer. We have heard old 
citizens speak very highly of Dr. Cunningham's professional attainments. 

Dr. Anderson Watkins, the first recorded president of the Medical Society 
of Augusta, was one of the members of the first State Board of Health ap- 
pointed in 1825. 

Dr. John Carter was also a prominent physician of Augusta some half cen- 



The Medical Profession. 273 

tury since. He was one of the original board of trustees of the Medical Acad- 
emy of Georgia, now the medical college. His son, Dr. F"lournoy Carter, who 
died some years since, also stood high in the profession. 

Dr. Ignatius P. Garvin lived to a good old age, and has an honorable re- 
cord. He was one of the original board of trustees of the medical academy of 
1828, a colleague of Drs. John Carter, Ford and Antony. For many years, in 
conjunction with the celebrated Dr. Paul F. Eve, who subsequently removed to 
Nashville, Dr. Garvin conducted the Southern Medical and Surgical Review. 
He was one of the first faculty of the medical college. In 1848 he was mayor 
of Augusta, and for a number of years just preceding his death was the city 
treasurer. 

Dr. George M. Newton is a physician who should be mentioned in this con- 
nection. He was the stepson of Mr. Isaac Tuttle, who at his death in 1855 left 
his house on Walker street for an orphan asylum, and endowed it with $50,- 
000, half his fortune. The other moiety he left to Dr. Newton, who, at his 
death in 1859, left his entire estate, $200,000, to the asylum. 

Dr. Louis Alexander Dugas was one of the most eminent physicians ever 
practicing in Augusta. His father was a French planter of San Domingo, who 
emigrated to the United States on the insurrection of the blacks in that island, 
and settled in Wilkes county, Ga.. where Dr. Dugas was born in 1806 The 
doctor was educated up to his fifteenth year by his widowed mother, a lady of 
great accomplishments, who had been herself educated in Paris. Dr. Dugas 
at first studied with Dr. Charles Lambert de Beauregard, a French emigre ^\\y- 
sician, and on his death studied with Dr. John Dent. He then attended lec- 
tures in Maryland and Philadelphia, and graduated at the medical department 
of the University of Maryland in 1827. He then studied abroad for three 
years, and in 1831 began a long and illustrious career in Augusta. At the time 
Dr. Dugas entered actively on the practice the medical college was an assured 
fact, and on its organization he was elected professor of anatomy and physiol- 
ogy. Subsequently he took the chair of physiology and pathological anatomy 
which he held till 1855, when he was elected to the professorship of the princi- 
ples and practice of surgery, which he held till his resignation from the faculty 
in 1880. In 1834 Dr. Dugas revisited Europe for the purpose of purchasing 
a library and museum for the medical college, a fund of $6,000 having been 
appropriated for that purpose, and from his acquaintanceship in Paris, success- 
fully accomplished his important mission. In 185 i he again visited Europe and 
in the same year assumed the editorship of the Southern Medical and Surgical 
Joiir?ial, the duties of which he acceptably discharged till 1858, the Journal 
taking high rank in the medical press. Dr. Dugas was a voluminous writer 
on professional topics, and contributed to a number of medical periodicals be- 
sides the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, among others The New Or- 
leans Medical and Surgical Journal and \.\\& Atlanta Medical and Surgical 
35 



274 History of Augusta. 



Journal, and several very valuable papers are to be found in the transactions of 
the American Medical Association, the Medical Association of Georgia, and the 
International Medical Congress. Dr. Dugas wrote as many as one hundred and 
twenty-seven papers on professional topics of great interest, a list of which will 
be found on pages five and six of a valuable and interesting sketch of the life 
of this celebrated physician, written by Dr. Eugene Foster, of Augusta, presi- 
dent of the Augusta Board of Health, and president of the Medical Associa- 
tion of Georgia. Dr. Dugas paid special attention to surgery, and when Au- 
gusta was a great hospital center during the war, containing thousands of 
wounded soldiers, was the consulting surgeon of the Confederate government. 
Some of his professional discoveries were of immense value. In particular he 
furnished a rule by which to ascertain whether dislocation of the shoulder joint 
exists, a rule which works with mathematical certainty, and should be known 
as Dugas's Law. It is best stated in its author's own words: "If the fingers of 
the injured limb can be placed by the patient, or by the surgeon upon the sound 
shoulder, while the elbow touches the thorax, there can be no dislocation; and 
if this cannot be done, there must be a dislocation. In other words, it is 
physically impossible to bring the elbow in contact with the sternum or front 
of the thorax if there be a dislocation ; and the inability to do this is proof pos- 
itive of the existence of dislocation, inasmuch as no other injury of the shoul- 
der joint can induce this inability." When it is known that prior to the dis- 
covery of this law the science of surgery knew no certain method for diagnos- 
ticating injuries of the shoulder joint, the service done in this particular by Dr. 
Dugas can be readily seen. 

At the time the report, hereinbefore mentioned, on the causes of the yellow 
fever in Augusta in 1839 was made. Dr. Dugas was the sole dissentient among 
the physicians of that day on the point of the fever being of local origin. It 
was his view [that it did not originate in Augusta, but was imported from 
'Charleston in railroad cars, thus foreshadowing what may be called the germ 
theory, or that yellow fever may be brought into a locality by the introduc- 
tion of spores. 

In his last medical paper, one read before the International Medical Con- 
gress in Philadelphia in 1876, Dr. Du^as broached a theory as to the treat- 
ment of penetrating wounds of the abdomen which is said to be destined to 
revolutionize this branch of practice and make recovery the rule and death the 
exception in these dreadful cases rather than the reverse as is the case now. 
A wound in the abdomen is commonly regarded as almost inevitably mortal. 
It was Dr. Dugas's idea that the recognized method of treating such wounds 
brought on septicaemia, or blood poisoning, and the practice recommended by 
him was to open the lacerated parts, trim the ragged edges of the wound to a 
straight edge, and rel\- upon t!ie healing power of nature to reunite the parts. 
In enforcing this he says, " Is it not lime that we should regard as groundless 



The Medical Profession. 



275 



the fears heretofore entertained with regard to the danger of opening the abdo- 
minal cavity ? No change of practice in the class of wounds under considera- 
tion can make the chances of recovery less than they are now, and 1 feel con- 
fident that by adopting the plan proposed we would so alter the" results as to 
make recovery the rule and death the exception." Dr. Dugas died in 1884, 
honored by the people among whom he had so long labored and venerated by 
the profession he so worthily adorned. 

Dr. Lewis DeSaussure Ford was born in New Jersey in 1801, and died in 
Augusta in 1883. He graduated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of 
New York in 1822, and in 1827 settled in Augusta. Here for over half a cen- 
tury he practiced his noble profession with a generous tenderness of heart that 
makes his name venerated throughout the city. He was emphatically a Good 
Samaritan. His most prominent trait was benevolence. Day or night, in rain 
or sunshine, it was only necessary to tell him that a scene of misery and 
anguish waited his presence, and he hastened to the bedside of the sick poor. 
Often between the call of Dives and Lazarus, he preferred the latter, where 
perils were even ; if the latter's anguish were greater than the former, the poor 
man always had his first attention. It was a guiding principle of his life to do 
good, and daily as he taught the students he inculcated the lesson of unselfish 
devotion to duty on them. " The virtue of benevolence," he told them, " lies 
at the foundation, while it forms the crowning glory of the medical character. 
Without this heavenborn principle, there can be no enlightened appreciation, 
no devoted performance of the duties of that profession, whose ministrations 
have been represented by one not of our profession, as a beautiful, but hum- 
ble, imitation of those of the Divine Providence." The portrait of Dr. Ford, 
hanging in the gallery of the city's chief magistrates in the mayor's office, suf- 
ficiently reveals what manner of man he was. In his long locks and flowing 
beard, and wise yet merciful eye. the patriarch shines out. Dr. Ford is pre- 
eminently known in Augusia as the good physician. 

Dr. Ford was one of the founders of the Medical College, and for a few 
years had the chair of chemistry. After that he had the professorship of the 
principles and practice of medicine. In manners he was a most polished and 
elegant gentleman, a true gentleman, one who always pays a due regard to the 
rights and feelings of others. His literary taste was highly cultivated. He 
spoke with ease, and had the happy faculty of lightening the burden of a heavy 
subject with a bright flash of wit, refreshing and strengthening all who heard. 
With these qualifications he was a most successful lecturer, and what world of 
good he worked with the two thousand students who sat under him can be 
imagined. 

Dr. Ford was an eminent expert in epidemic diseases, and both in 1839 
and 1854 rendered immensely valuable service by his early and accurate diag- 
nosis of the fever then afflicting this city. His reputation in this particular 



2/6 History of Augusta. 



not infrequently led to his being called to other pioints to observe and decide 
as to the nature of doubtful or imperfectly developed febrile affections. 

During the war he was surgeon of the first Georgia Hospital in Richmond 
to the close- of the struggle. When called on in 1862 he unhesitatingly jour- 
neyed to the Confederate capital, though then sixty years of age, and well 
entitled to excuse from such onerous duty. 

We have said that the speciality of Dr. Dugas was surgery ; that of Dr. 
Ford was the pathology and therapeutics of malarial fevers. The pages of tlie 
Southern Medical and Surgical Review, from 1837 to 1845 contain a number 
of papers by him on this subject, which have become classics of the profession 
on this important subject. It is said that his contributions to medical knowl- 
edge in this department are the most important of any physician in America. 

Dr. Ford had considerable taste for public life ; was for a number of years 
a member of the city council, and in 1846 elected mayor, and in 1847 re- 
elected. In the days when the State government was prostrated at the feet 
of a major-general in the reconstruction era. Dr. Ford boldly and openly 
aligned himself on the side of civil rule against bayonet supremacy, and twice 
addressed his fellow-citizens, urging ihem not to acquiesce in the decrees of 
the military authorities. 

At his death the city council voted to attend his funeral in a body, the 
leading paper editorially said his history was epitomized in " his unselfish de- 
votion to his fellow men, the alleviation of their physical suffering, the binding 
up of their spiritual wounds, the promotion of their virtues"; the medical col- 
lege resolveti that it hatl lost " the revered and beloved Nestor of our faculty." 

A third most eminent Augusta physician was Dr. Joseph Adams Eve, 
born near Charleston, S. C. in 1805, and dying in Augusta in 1886. In man- 
ner Dr. Eve was much like his beloved contemporary. Dr. Ford. He was 
courtesy and kindness itself The Chesterfieldian bow and polite smile of this 
venerable physician were institutions of Augusta. We once heard a rough fel- 
low aptly express the general sentiment: "Why, Dr. Eve will take off his hat 
to an)' man living." The potent civilizing effect of urbanity had penetrated the 
mind of even this uncouth observer, and he said what he did in admiration and 
honor. Behind the formal outwarii observances of civility lay a kind heart. 
A tale of distress at once brought Dr. Eve to the rescue. 

Having a natural taste f )r medicine, he studied in the office of the cele- 
brated Dr. Milton Antony, the founder of the medical college, and in 1827 
visited Europe and attended lectures there. In 1828 he finished his course 
and graduated at the Medical College of South Carolina. In conjunction with 
Dr. Antony he established the Academy ol Medicine, which was incorporated, 
as we have seen, in 1828, and was probably in operation by 1829. It was at 
first a hospital as well as a medical institute, and was situated where the 
Widow's Home is now. In 1833. on the organi-zation of the medical college, 



The Medical Profession. 277 

Dr. Eve was assigned to the chair of materia medica. In 1839 he was elected 
professor of obstetrics and diseases of women and children, and held this chair 
uninterruptedly for the long period of fifty-three years. At the time of his 
death he was considered by the profession as the oldest active teacher of ob- 
stetrics in the world. From his great skill and the many years in which he 
labored, it may almost be said that he brought half the town into being, and it 
is a reliable estimate that he attended five thousand obstetrical cases. He was 
an honorary member of the Boston Gynecological Society, and the American 
Gynecological Society made him its first honorary member. He was one of 
the founders of the Medical Association of Georgia, and in 1879 was unani- 
mously elected its president. At one time he edited that famous publication, 
the Southern Medical and Snrgical Jonvjial. Preferring, as he expressed it, 
"to wear out rather than rust out," Dr. Eve continued in practice to the last. 
Of the remarkable strength of his memory we well recall one instance coming 
under our personal observation. We had occasion, in a legal matter involving 
descent, to call on him for information as to the dates of the death of several 
persons, deceased many years before. After a moment's reflection he gave 
the desired data, but said, to make sure, he would have his old journals looked 
up. This being done, the facts were found, as he stated, though for forty 
years, no doubt, his attention had not been called to these cases. 

One remarkable fact in the history of the medical profession in Augusta is 
the frequency with which the sons or near relatives of leading physicians have 
themselves adopted the profession of medicine. Thus Dr. Edwin L. Antony 
graduates in 1835 at the medical college; Dr. Milton Antony, jr.. in 1845, 
and Dr. Decourcy Antony in 185 1. Dr. Henry F. Campbell graduating in 
1842, is followed in 1 847 by Dr. Robert Campbell, jr., and in 1872 by Dr. A. 
Sibley Campbell Dr. John Dent, a contemporary of Dr. Milton Antony, is 
followed by Dr. John M. Dent in 1856. Dr. W. H. Doughty graduating in 
1855, is followed by Dr. W. H Doughty, jr., in 1878. The venerable Dr. 
Joseph A. Eve saw no less than seven of his name or family graduate : Drs. 
Edward A. Eve in 1833, Sterling C. Eve in 1861, W. R. Eve in 1867, 
Joseph E. Eve in 1872, E. J. Eve and W. H. Eve in 1875. and Joseph Eve 
Allen in 1877. Dr. L. D. Ford had two sons adopt his profession, De Saus- 
sure Ford in 1856, and Dr. Lewis R. Ford in 1870. Dr. Louis A. Dugas 
was followed by Dr. George C. Dugas in 1873, Dr. Alexander E. Dugas in 
1875, and Dr. W. H. Dugas in 1879. Of Dr. F'lourney Carter, son of old 
Dr. John Carter, we have previously spoken. 

There could be no stronger testimonial to the personal and professional 
worth of the physicians of Augusta than this family tendency to pursue the 
profession of medicine. Of the present faculty ot Augusta it is not in the 
scope of the present sketch to speak, but in point of skill they lose nothing in 
comparison with the worthies of the past. As an old writer quaintly puts the 



278 History of Augusta. 



confidence reposed in a good physician, " there is healing in the very creak of 
his shoes as he comes up the stairs."^ 



CHAPTER XXV. 
THE PRESS. 

The .-\ugusta Chi-onicle — Established in 1785 — Its Editors for a Century — Smith (1785) 

— Driscoll (1807) — Bevan (1821) — A Semi- Weekly— Harmon (1822) — A Tri-Weel<ly — 
Hobby (1824) — Pemberton (1825) — Jones (1837) — A Daily — Colonel James M. Smythe 
(1846)— Dr. Jones (1847) — Morse (1861) — General A. R. Wri,^dit and Hon. Patrick Walsh 
(1866) — H. Gregg Wright (1877)— James R. Randall (1883) — Plea.sant A. Stovall (1887) — 
The Chronicle of 1790 — Its Appearance, News, Advertisements, etc. — Chronicle s Centennial 

— Honorable Record — The Augusta Herald — The Const ittitionalist — Colonel Gardner — 
Southern Field and Fireside — State's Rights Sentinel — The Mirror — The Republic — 
The Eve/ling Netus — The Progress — The Free Press — The Banner of the South — The 
Pacificator — The Southern Medical and Surgical Journal — Veteran Newspaper Attaches. 

THE Augusta Chronicle is the oldest paper in Augusta, and also the pio- 
neer in the journah'stic field of this city. It was established in 1785^ 
under the name of the Augusta Chronicle and Gazette of the State. This title, 
the Chj'onicle, the paper has retained ever since, though from time to time 
during the century, as it absorbed contemporary journals, the latter portion of 
the name has undergone change. In 1821 it became the Augusta Chronicle 
and Georgia Gazette. In 1822 the style was altered to Augusta Chronicle and 
Georgia Advertiser. \w 1835 't appeared simply as Augusta Chronicle. In 
1837, having absorbed the State s Rights Sentinel, a paper edited by the famous 
Judge Longstreet, author of " Georgia Scenes," it appeared as a daily news- 
paper, under the styXe o{ Daily Chronicle and Sentinel, which name it retained 
until 1877, when, having absorbed the Constitutionalist, its rival for more than 
eighty years, it appeared as the Chronicle and Constitutionalist. In 1885 it 
dropped the latter portion of this title and took the style of the Augusta 
Chronicle, which it now bears. 

The Chronicle was first edited and published by John E. Smith, State print- 
er, for a number of years. The paper was at that time a weekly of small di- 

' For valuable assistance in the preparation of this sketch we are indebted to Dr. Edward 
Geddings, dean of the Medical College of Augusta, and .son of the celebrated Dr. Geddings, of 
Charleston, mentioned in the discussion on yellow fever ; also to Dr. Eugene Foster, president 
of the Augusta board of Health and Medical Association of Georgia ; and to Dr. Henry F.. 
Campbell, one of the most eminent phvsicians in the United States. 




%-F.GKernc>j^S( C°l^-^'' 



The Press. 279 

mensions and we give some sketch of its appearance, contents, etc., later on in 
this article. 

The next editor was a Mr. Driscoll, a native of Ireland. In the heated pol- 
itical contests of the era of President Adams Mr. Driscoll was a pronounced 
anti- Anglican, favoring the French side in politics and exhibiting great ani- 
mosity toward England. The Augusta Herald, The Chronicle's contemporary 
of that time, was as strongly the other way, and between Mr. Bunce of the 
Herald, and Editor Driscoll of The Chronicle heavy journalistic firing ensued. 
Finally, in a tart card, Mr. Driscoll informed his opponent the discussion had 
better be adjourned " to the Lower Market or South Carolina," and on these 
hostile intimations peace seems to^have resumed its sway. Mr. Driscoll was a 
journalist of considerable ability, and as early as 1807 we find a decided im- 
provement in the art editorial. The markets begin to receive attention, local 
items and general news are made separate departments, and great attention is 
paid to " leader" writing, as if there began to be a desire to mold opinion as 
well as record events. 

In 1 82 1 Mr. Joseph Vallence Bevan assumed the editorial chair. This gen- 
tleman was a man of fine literary attainments, and at one time contemplated 
writing a history of the State. The General Assembly voted him the use of 
the archives for that purpose, but his untimely death intervened. Under Mr. 
Bevan the paper was enlarged and much improved. Its editorials were well 
written, and the whole paper began to assume something of a modern journ- 
alistic air. Under Mr. Bevan The Chronicle began to appear as a semi-weekly. 

Toward the end of 1822 John K. Charlton, Andrew Ruddel, and John B. 
Lennard became proprietors, and Mr. T. S. Hannon, editor. Mr. Hannon made 
the paper a tri- weekly, but in 1824, at which time William J. Hobby took 
charge, it was reduced, to a semi-weekly. 

In 1825 Mr. A. H. Pemberton became proprietor and so remained for a 
number of years. Under Mr. Pemberton the paper was nearly of its present 
size, but in a single sheet. Great attention was paid to its literary depart- 
ment and much space given to correspondents. For some ten years Mr. A. 
H. Pemberton managed the paper alone; in 1835 1"^^ associated his brother in 
business with himself, as A. H. & William F. Pemberton. On December 31, 
1836, the Pembertons sold out to Mr. William E. Jones, proprietor of the State's 
Rights Sentinel, who merged the papers, and on January 3, 1837, issued the 
first number of the Daily Chronicle and Sentinel. In venturing on such an 
untried experiment in Augusta as a daily paper, Mr. Jones remarked that he 
did so with some diffidence, but no apprehension. The time, he thought, was 
opportune and the future would sustain his venture. 

In 1839 Mr. Jones formed the firm of William E. Jones & Co., which was 
succeeded in 1840 by two brothers, James W. and William S.Jones, the form- 
er of whom acted as editor for a number of years. Mr. James W. Jones was a 



28o History of Augusta. 



writer of great vigor and determination, ardent in announcing and steady ia 
maintaining his opinions. In the heated pohtical discussions of the day he be- 
came involved in a controversy with Colonel James Gardner, of the Constitu- 
tionalist, and a duel ensued. 

In 1849 Dr. William S. Jones bought out the interest of James W. Jones 
in the paper, the latter continuing, however, to act as editor. About this time 
we first find telegraphic dispatches in the paper. The issue of January i, 
1849, has a dispatch which is said to have left New York on ten o'clock on Fri- 
day night, and to have been received in Augusta on Saturday afternoon. It 
appears in the paper on Monday morning, or some sixty hours after ; but slow 
work as this appears now, it was a wonderful ^improvement then. About this 
time we also find the telegraph was in operation at various points in Georgia, 
and the Baltimore papers are quoted with very full telegraphic intelligence from 
Boston and the West. 

In 1846 Colonel James M. Smythe, a gentleman still a resident in Augusta, 
edited the paper, and with great ability, being one of the best informed politi- 
cians in Georgia. 

During the war Dr. Jones disposed of The Chronicle to Mr. N. S. Morse, of 
New York. Dr. Jones's name is inseparably connected with TJie Chrojiicle, 
which he managed with signal ability for a period of over twenty years. He 
died a few years since, honored and revered b}' all who knew him. His work 
still lives in the sturdy journal he so long fostered, and his portrait, as that also 
of his no less celebrated brother, James W. Jones, adorns the walls of the ed- 
itorial sanctum. 

Mr. Morse conducted the paper to 1866. In politics Mr. Morse was emi- 
nently a Morse man. During the war he was ardently Southern. When the 
Federal military forces entered Augusta he burned or secreted the files of the 
paper for the eventful period 1861-65, ^^^^l became intensely loyal. In per- 
sonal appearance Mr. Morse was a remarkable compound. His face round as 
an apple, and bright and rather protruding eyes gave him a boyish appearance; 
but, as if to disguise this, he wore a mustache of portentous magnitude, brist- 
ling stiffly out at either side of his nose, a la Victor Emanuel. In character he 
was equally composite. His real disposition was that of good humored selfish- 
ness, but he affected the wild Western Bill style of deportment to a great ex- 
tent. One of his manias was a love of bright arms, and we well recall the huge 
revolver and preposterous bowie-knife he especially cherished. Mr. Morse af- 
terwards removed to New York and managed the Evening News there with 
wonderful success up to his death, a few years since. 

On March 24, 1-866, Mr. Henry Moore and General A. R. Wright came in- 
to possession of the paper. In November of this year Mr. Patrick Walsh be- 
came connected with The Chronicle. Mr. Moore was a prominent citizen of 
Augusta, who by his business tact and experience did much to sustain the pa- 



The Press. o 

281 



per during the troubled years just after the wa. Mr. Moore was one of the 
kmdest and most generous of ™en. He it was who ad.aneed the ntonev to 
purchase The CkronicU from Mr. Morse ^ 

General Ambrose R. Wright is one of the celebrated men of Georgia Dur 
mg the war he rose to the rank of major-general, being particular yemi^e; 

tte ofT'^r": '"'',!'",'^^- ^''" "" ™^ "^ ^^'^'i ncau.nuj:~, 

H H T • r^"' °"''"=' "'"^^^ P^^""-'^ afflicting circumstance 
He had just been elected to Congress from the Richmond district tl's re iz 
ng one of the bnghtest dreams of his life, but the exertions of the cavs^ 
threw him mto an illness which proved fatal canvass 

Gen^ral'°A''7w "'hf' ^"l ''^"'"Z" *" """^^ J'''"">' ">■ ^^ "-"y Moore, 
Genera A. R. Wright, and Hon. Patrick Walsh, but at that time Mr Moore 

eral Wright, the latter assuming the editorial chair. Mr. Wri..ht possessed 
marked journalistic ability, and soon ranked with the foremost oft e ^M 
profession In addition to great talent he had an unusual degree of Indus y 
ad practical e.xperience. His influence had already been felt'throughou 1 1^ 
S ate. and his writings quoted throughout the country ; the county had s^nl 
him several times to the General Assembly, and a bright future was before hm 
when his days were brought to an untimely end oeloiemm 

In March, ,877, Tkc Coustitutionalist, The Chronule's rival for some fiftyodd 
years, became merged with it, and the paper for a number of years hereafe^ 
appeared as The Chronicle and ConstUuHonaHs,, Shortly thereaf e it became 
the property of an incorporated company, of which Hon. Patrick Walsrwa 
and IS still president. Up to about ,887 James R. Randall, the wo Id Jde 
amous author of •• Maryland, my Maryland," edited The Ch;ouiele w U^si! a 

tab hed '?.-\^^"-™-' Mr. Pleasant A. Stovall, a gentleman of welles- 

tabhshed journalistic reputation, has edited the paper 

.70^'"lHs"' ^°P>' "V"" ':'"'°""'' '"''"' •'^^^^ ^^'' Saturday, October 9 ' 
.790. It is a small affair, its pages eight by fifteen inches, and but four fn 

• Gt^Ot. ;- 7"'f -1 --^>y. »d the caption, re'ads as fotv 

GEORGIA. The Augusta Chronicle and Gazette of the State. Freedom of 
^>e press and trial by jury shall remain inviolate. Constitution of GeoTI 
Angus a. Printed by John E. Smith, printer to the State. Essays art des 
o Intel ligence, advertisements, etc., will be gratefully received, and ev'ery Wnd 
of printing performed." The advertisements are, compara ively sp aki , 

year ,,9, are advertised for, the ration consisting of one pound of bread or 
flour, one pound of teef or three-quarters of a pound of pork, and ■ : e gil 
of comnron rum." Notice is given of administration by Robe t Watl ^s the 
auUior of ■■ Watkin's Digest of Georgia Laws," of which w'e speak n^c; 
of the Augusta legal profession, on the estate of John Walton, one of the th e 



282 History op^ Augusta. 



signers of the articles of confederation on belialf of Georgia. A merchant 
advertises that he has Jamaica spirits at five shillings and threepence per gal. 
Ion. " Northward rum," probably what was afterwards called New England 
rum, at three and ninepence, cherry bounce at six shillings, almonds at one 
and twopence per pound, coffee at one and nine, and imperial Hyson tea, evi- 
dently then a very great luxury, at eleven and eightpence. Curiously enough, 
while the other quotations are in sterling, Geneva, in cases, is quoted in Fed- 
eral currency; at six dollars and a half per case. Another merchant adver- 
tises he is about to start on a voyage for Europe, and will undertake the sale 
on commission of " tobacco or merchantable indigo," then staple products in 
Georgia, the cotton era not having then dawned. George Walton, the cele- 
brated patriot and jurist of Georgia's Revolutionary period, gives notice of 
somebody's old bay horse having been taken up trespassing in his fields. Mr. 
Editor conjures and adjures his delinquent subscribers to pay up, quite in the 
style of the country editor of to-day, and says hereafter no work can be taken 
from his office till cash down. The local news is scant. Results of the recent 
election for members of the Legislature from Richmond county, which then 
included Columbia, are given, by which it appears that the country was then 
entitled to four members, and that the following were elected by the votes 
respectively attached to their names : Seaborn Jones, 566 ; James Lewis, 538 ; 
Benjamin Andrews, 508 ; and Solomon Ellis, 476. None but landowners be- 
ing then competent to vote, the polls show a very substantial population at 
the time. Among the unsuccessful candidates were Benjamin Few, Thomas 
Carr, Jesse Sanders, John Appling, Charles Crawford, W. F. Booker, and 
Peter Carnes. 

One death is noted, that of an infant of eight months, whom the editor 
compliments with the following quotation : 

" Happy the babe who, privileged by fate 
To shorter labor and a lighter weight, 
Received but yesterday the gift of breath. 
Ordered to-morrow to return to death." 

In the news department is a considerable collection of items for so small a 
vehicle. Advices of June 5, 1790 — only four months and four days old — 
from Berlin state that the Duke ot Sudermania had put the Russian fleet to 
flight before Revel, and rushed pell-mell into the harbor with them, thereby 
taking it. Paris news of June 21 is that the title of the king is to be Emperor 
of the French, the national assembly dignifying Louis XVI. preparatory to 
guillotining him three years later. The assembly also abolished the titles of 
"marquis, compte, and duke." London advices of June 7 say the admiralty 
has revoked all protections against impressment, it being indispensable to man 
the Hannibal, the Royal George, and other ships of the line at once. At Carls- 



The Press. 283 

croon the Swedes are cleaving out of the soHd rock docks large enough for 
twenty men-of-war. The emperor of Morocco falls out with the Spanish con- 
sul, and, on the ground that " it was not consistent with the etiquette of his 
court to hang him in effigy," ties the poor man to the tail of a wild ass, which 
is hunted till furious, and from this situation the consul is taken only to be 
hanged. War is brewing between England and Spain, and the latter provides 
herself with some huge ships, carrying 124 to 140 guns. The Turkish grand 
vizier at the head of 120,000 malignant and turbaned Turks, is advancing on 
Widdin ; and the Prince of Saxe-Cobourg — some ancestor of Prince Albert, 
is to give him battle. New York advices of July 14 — a few days short of 
being three months old — contain a report of the three United States commis- 
sioners to negotiate a treaty with the Creeks, explanatory of their failure, 
which is attributed to " their principal chief, Mr, Alexander McGillivray." 
They further report that the treaty of Augusta in 1783 and other compacts 
with the Indians were conducted as understandingly as possible " where one 
of the contracting parties is destitute of the benefits of enlightened society." 
Advices of September 2, from Philadelphia, give the progress of President 
Washington from New York, then the capital of the United States, to Mount 
Vernon, in the style of the present court journals of Europe. He was accom- 
panied to his barge by the governor of New York, the principal officers of gov- 
ernment, the mayor and corporation, officers of the city, and a number of citi- 
zens. " On the departure of him whom all hold so dear, the heart was full, the 
tear dropped from the eye; it was not to be restrained ; it was seen ; and the 
president appeared sensibly moved by this last mark of esteem for his character 
and affection for his person." On the approach to Philadelphia of " The pres- 
ident of the United States, his lady, and their suite," they were met by " a 
number of respectable citizens, the city troops, and companies of light infantry, 
who, on this occasion, as well as others, all testified their affection for the bene- 
factor of mankind. Every public demonstration of joy was manifested, the 
bells announced his welcome, a /en de joie was exhibited, and as he rode 
through town to the city tavern, age bowed with respect and youth repeated in 
acclamations the applause of the hero of the western world !" A banquet is 
tendered his excellency by the Legislature and " by the president and other 
executive officers of Pennsylvania, at which reason, valour and hospitality pre- 
sided." 

The poet's corner is not forgotten in the Chronicle of 1790. The editor 
states that an ode to Washington will appear in his next, and in the current 
issue gives " Lothario's" tribute to " Miss W 11, a specimen whereof is : 

" Sweetest syren of the Augustan stage, 

Adored by youth, respected by old age, 

Permit me now to sing in homespun lays, 

Thy charms divine — that all who know must praise." 



284 History of Augusta. 



The poet incautiously reveals the identity of his inamorata in his closing 

lines : 

" Thy lovely taper waist, how round and small ; 
Here language faints. I sigh with Jove for Wall, 
With her I'd live — with h-er I'd wish to fall." 

A poet of another character appears among the paid advertisements. He 
tells in doggerel how some spiteful neighbor had charged him with filching a 
bell, and how on the trial lie came clear : 

" This advertisement is to It'll, 
Near Harden's Creek that I do dwell. 
One of my neighbors did falsely tell 
That I of him had stole a bell. 

His witness was one Samuel Pope, 

A fellow that deserves a rope. 

No doubt but they may hear this bell 

A-ringing loud when they're in ," etc., etc. 

From this crude picture of the times, it is quite a change to turn to the 
Chronicle of the present day, after one hundred and four years of development, 
journalistic and otherwise During its long existence, the Chronicle has an 
honorable record. In its centennial edition published in 1885, it thus speaks- 
" A newspaper one hundred years old ! A gazette that for three generations 
has. in its each recurring issue, set out the current history of the day, and been 
read in each succeeding epoch by grandsire, by father, and by son. A contem- 
poraneous annalist of the times, keeping pace with decades and lusters until a 
century is complete. "Such is now The Augusta Chrojiicle. In the museums 
of old established governments and in the libraries of journalistic virtuosos may 
be found here and there such wrecks and remnants of the past as a stray copy 
of some venerable Gazette or antiquated News-Letter. As rare and curious 
relics, there still exist London papers which Addison might have read, and 
German journals wherein Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion of the North, may 
have seen recounted the valorous deeds of his invincible pikemen. Even in 
America are sundry ante-Revolutionary Post-Boys, and Mails, and Clarions, 
full of fealty to his majesty, and scarcely less obsequious to Sir Somebody 
Highstyle, colonial governor and vicegerent of the crown. 

" But all these are among the have-beens of the world. Like the poet's 
days by-gone, they are but 'death in life.' The chance which has preserved to 
us, here and there, some mummied Egyptian has spared likewise such antique 
specimens of typography ; the cerements of the one and the discolored col- 
umns of the other speaking the same melancholy language — we are not, but 
we were ! 



The Press. 285 

" It is different with this paper, whose centenary we celebrate. A hundred 
years ago it told, in feeble fashion, of the world and its ways. Each year of that 
hundred since — vires acqiiirescit eiindo — gathering new strength as it went 
along, it still recounted the story of its times; and now, reversing the usual or- 
der of things earthly, and finding increase of vigor in increase of age, it tells, 
each morning, what happened yesterda}'- the wide world over, from China to 
Peru. The thumb paper of 1785 — brief, jejune, primeval — a mere suggestion 
of a newspaper rather than a newspaper itself, and our modern daily, panoplied 
with every appliance of journalistic science, are alike The Chronicle. At no time 
in that century have its types lain idle or its presses ceased to move. Come 
peace or war, health or pestilence, prosperity or panic, out at its appointed pe- 
riod came the paper, to say by its bare issual more powerfully than any words 
could — I still live! There was a time when the dark wing of Azrael hovered 
over the palid, fever-stricken city, but The Chronicle men of that' day stood 
steady as a stone wall. Day after day the paper came forth, here with a list of 
yesterday's dead, and here with words of hope, comfort and courage for the be- 
reaved and terrified living. Then, as the scourge increased in virulence, the 
printers fell, one by one, at their very stands, until, with an apology — as if, 
brave soul, he needed to make any — the editor of that day announced lie could 
only issue his paper intermittently. First there was a lapse of three days, then 
it was a week, then it lengthened into a fortnight ; then the pestilence redoub- 
led its violence, and the spirit of the people and paper was almost spent. Still, 
in pathetic tones, the editor exhorts the stricken city once more to hope, and 
faith, and patience. The cleansing rain, the cooling breeze, the all-important 
frost cannot now, he urged, be so far off. 

"And at length the scourge ceased. One in five, a double decimation, had 
felt its cruel lash. 

" There was another time, when the drums beat savagely for war. Food for 
powder grew scarce. The cradle and the grave were robbed to fill the ranks. 
Man, essentially a fighting animal, went mad at the steady roar of the guns and 
the angry flap of the flags. Persistent industry was a thing of the past, and 
skilled industry all but unattainable. Add to this that a mighty fleet lay like 
an iron wall between this land and the outer world. If a tool broke who could 
replace it? When material was exhausted, what the source of supply? The 
work of a daily journal is a curious mosaic — grand and beautiful in result, but 
that result dependent on a thousand ordinarily unconsidered particulars. In 
this time of battle each of these unconsidered particulars forced itself into no- 
tice. The air we breathe is so common we only appreciate its value from its 
loss. The mechanical appliances of our time are so much a matter of course 
that we never estimate them truly till we look for them, and, looking, find them 
not. 

" Scant of men, scant of means, industrial life languished in the South of 



286 History of Augusta. 

twenty odd years since, and Southern journalism fairly starved. But the diffi- 
culties of that period daunted our predecessors not. If printers could not be 
found, the\- were made ; if new type could not be had, the veterans of the past 
were furbished up and set to work again; if your fine, white, double extra, im- 
proved printing paper had become a mere historical reminiscence, there was 
enough of that memorable, dingy, home-made, cartilaginous, saffi^on-hued 
product, known as Confederate paper, to take the impress of the type. 

"Amid the war, as through the pestilence, The Chronicle came out promptly 
at the appointed day. And, as with war and pestilence, so with financial panic. 
Our file room is the mausoleum of many rivals of a day. In the morning they 
sprang up; in the evening were cut down as grass, and gathered into our barn. 
Peace to their names; of them we further speak not — parcere sjibjectos. Safely 
entombed, as they are, in our own private crypts, we refer to them only in or- 
der to say that, while these fell by the wayside in the usual financial vicissitudes 
of a century, we have survived, breasting each panic, shunning each monetary 
rock and shoal. Some of our fallen contemporaries succumbed to " the press- 
ure of circumstances" eighty or ninety years ago ; some a half century since ; 
some in more recent times. At each recurring financial stress in the past cen- 
tury, some originally hopeful journalistic project proved unequal to the strain J 
and, gathering its files, and its material into our garner, we still pursued the 
tenor of our way — perhaps, though our modesty blushes to assign that as the 
reason, because of the survival of the fittest." 

Some of the editors of the CJironicle, notably in later years when the slav- 
ery agitation had ceased to be the burden of newspaper song, have rendered 
signal service to the cause of humanity, morality, and good government. Mr, 
H. Gregg Wright was an exceedingly attractive and forcible writer, and sys- 
tematically devoted his great abilities to discountenancing dueling and lynch 
law. His ridicule of the one and denunciation of the other were unremitting. 
He steadily iterated and reiterated the great truth that no people can truly pros- 
per who do not cherish an abiding faith in and reverence for the majesty of the 
law. His early legal training was of much assistance to these efforts. 

James R. Randall, who succeeded Mr. Wright, was the unsparing foe of in- 
fidelity and immorality. No fashionable glamour could conceal from his re- 
buke offenses against modesty and goodness. No high-sounding scientific 
phrases could delude him as to the real nature and end of atheistical theories. 
It was his custom to make his editorials on Sunday mornings a sort of lay ser- 
mon, in which the beauties of goodness and the loveliness of celestial faith were 
garbed in the brightest colors of a poet's fancy. There was nothing pedantic 
or patronizing about these admirable articles. They came from the heart and 
went to the heart. 

Under the editorial charge of Hon Patrick Walsh, the CJironiclc has not 
only maintained the salient lines of the polic}' pursued by Mr. Wright and Mr. 



The Press. 287 

Randall, but has been of incalculable value to the material interests of the city. 
The advantages of Augusta as a cotton market and manufacturing center have 
been enforced and illustrated in so many ways, with such forcible arguments, 
and by so much patient, well-directed, and persistent labor, that the growth of 
the city in these particulars is heavily indebted to Mr. Walsh's sagacious policy. 
The Augusta Herald was established at a later period than The Chronicle, 
but before the close of the eighteenth century, and was for a long time con- 
ducted by John Bunce and then William J. Hobby. The Herald was a strong 
Federalist sheet in the days of John Adams, the Black Cockade era, and so on, 
and many were the editorial skirmishes growing out of these antique politics be- 
tween it and the Chronicle. In course of time the Herald gave way to the Con- 
stitutiojialist, first issued as a tri- weekly in 1822. From about 1850 the Con- 
stitutionalist was edited with singular ability byjames Gardner, one of the 
most influential politicians of his day. The contest of this gentleman for the 
Democratic nomination for governor in 1857 is one of the most celebrated in 
the political annals of the State. Mr. Gardner was ultimately defeated by Hon. 
Joseph E. Brown, and returned to the charge of the Constitutionalist. Under 
his management the influence of this paper throughout Georgia was wonderful. 
Mr. Gardner continued to conduct it till towards the close of the war. At that 
time Mr. James R. Randall became editor, and for some of his vehement arti- 
cles the paper was silenced by the military authorities. Publication was soon 
resumed, and Mr. Randall continued to edit it until its merger into the Chron- 
icle and Sentinel \n 1877. 

For a number of years The Southern Field and Fireside, an agricultural and 
literary paper of a high order of merit, was published in coniunction with the 
Constitutionalist. It lived through the war, a most crucifying ordeal for a 
Southern newspaper, especially of a literary character, and was finally sold in 
1865 to a Mr. Smith of Raleigh, N. C, where it was continued for a time. Some 
of the most eminent of the Southern writers contributed to this publication. 

The State's Rights Sentinel, originally established by the celebrated Judge 
Longstreet, author of "Georgia Scenes," has already been mentioned. After^a 
short existence it was merged in The Augusta Chronicle and Georgia Adver- 
tiser, which then became The Chronicle and Sentinel, a name it retained for forty 
years. The Alirror and Republic were also papers which flourished for a time 
in Augusta. A very interesting account of Augusta journalism was written 
some few years since by Colonel James M. Smythe, for a number of years edi- 
tor of the Chronicle and Sentinel. We quote a portion : 

" Readers will excuse the writer for any allusion to himself, for that is made 
necessary by his connection for a time with The Chronicle as one of it^s editors, 
and with four other newspapers which were published in the city of Augusta' 
He moved from Washington Ga., to Augusta in the spring of 1846, and'^com- 
menced his work on the Chronicle and Sentinel on the fourth day after his arrival. 



288 History of Auousta. 



The Chronicle had been a leading paper in Augusta for sixty years. The writer 
remembers how often, when a boy, he saw the tall figure of Mr. Philip C. Gieu 
moving about in the office of the Washington Neivs. At tiiat time we doubt if 
there was a place in Georgia in which, for the number of its population, there 
could be found so many persons of culture, refinement, learning, and all that 
could add a charm to social intercourse in the town and surrounding country. 
There were the Gilberts, the Alexanders, the Toombs, the Campbells, the Tel- 
fairs, the Longs, the Remberts, the Tolberts, the Abbots, the l^airds, the Hills, 
the Ervines, the Sims, the Popes, the Barnetts, and many more, making in the 
town and country a refined and intellectual population unsurpassed in any sec- 
tion of the State or country. It was such a people who induced Mr. Gieu to 
remain so long as publisher of the Washington Neivs. But with all that learn- 
ing and intelligence, there was not 'patronage enough to meet the ambitious 
longings of so able a journalist as Philip C. Gieu, and he moved to Augusta and 
established the Constitutionalist, which existed separately as a powerful journal 
until its connection, a few years since, with the Chronicle. 

" We cannot omit a reference to that journalistic star, which, for some years 
long ago, emitted its splendor under the management of the late gifted John G. 
McWhorter. The beams of the Mirror shone brightly for a time under the 
management of Major Thompson, the gifted author of " Major Jones's Court- 
ship." 

" Confined to a brief space, we must omit all extended notice of the long 
ago papers, and confine our remarks to what we saw and experienced after our 
removal to Augusta. Colonel James Gardner had become the proprietor and 
editor of the Constitutionalist. We frequently crossed swords with him in po- 
litical discussion, but, as old college friends, however, we may have intrepidly 
and vigorously advocated the views and principles of our respective parties, we 
met as friends and exchanged civilities. Rash, passionate, and presumptuous 
as Gardner was as an editor and politician, in our discussions he exhibited uni- 
formly to us a marked courtesy which was similarly extended by us to him, 
so that we never needed an umpire to settle our differences and disputes. Dur- 
ing the latter part of the year 1847 ^^^ thought we saw something apparently 
cruel and perfidious in the course of the Whig party at the North, which ex- 
cited our distrust and apprehension. There were some differences between the 
writer and the proprietors of The Chronicle which led to a mutual desire for 
separation. The writer did not doubt the integrity of the Southern Whigs, but 
the Northern Whig sentiment we believed was becoming abolitionized, and 
after retiring from the Chronicle the writer established a paper of his own 
called the Republic. Some Whigs charged us with being about to desert the 
Whig party. Many Whigs and a good many Democrats came to the support 
of the Republic. Day by day we received letters with names and money; and 
to be brief, the Republic obtained near 4,000 subscribers in about three years. 



The Press. ^g^ 



Time sustained the truth of our suspicions. The Southern Whigs saw the di 
lemma they were in. Charged by some Whigs with being a deserter, we sold 
the Republic and its h'st to Colonel Gardner for $7,500. and became one of the 
editors of the Constitutionalist and Republic, at a salary of $2,000 per year It 
.s sufficient to say that the Whigs all joined the Democratic party Some of 
the Whig leaders said to us : • Smythe, you saw the truth a little sooner than 
we did, and we must all unite and go out of the Union and establish a South- 
ern Confederacy.'" 

Colonel Smythe speaks very handsomely of The Evening Nezvs, saying- 
A few years since Messrs. W. H. Moore, James L. Gow, and John M Wei- 
gle formed a copartnership to establish in Augusta a paper entitled The Even 
mg Nezvs. We had confidence in their success ; first, because we had learned 
enough of Mr. Moore to kuow that he possessed much, ability as a journaHst 
and writer, and in Mr. Gibson's aptness to sustain him ; and, secondly the peo- 
ple of Augusta were very generous in sustaining papers which were printed in 
Augusta. We found this latter opinion out thirty years ago in the generous 
liberality which they extended to the writer. They subscribed with great lib 
erahty for his paper, and filled it with paying advertisements. It turned out 
as we expected, and The Evening Nezvs has been established upon a generous 
and hberal basis. Nearly everybody takes the paper, and a glance at it shows 
how ,t IS appreciated as an advertising medium. It is eagerly sought for upon 
Its merits as a newspaper, and its superiority as a society paper " 

Mr. John M. Weigle. one of the founders of The Evening Nezvs, has since 
retired from that journal, and now publishes a very readable weekly called The 
Progress. 

Just after the war Mr. E. H. Pughe established The Tree Press, which flour- 
ished for some years, and was noted for its enterprise in the collection of news 
and the typographical neatness of its appearance. 

The Banner of the South was also published for some years after the war by 
Hon. Patrick Walsh. It was a literary and religious weekly, and to it Mr James 
K. Randall and Rev. Father Ryan contributed some beautiful poetry - The 
Conquered Banner" of the latter, and "Why the Robin's Breast is Red" by 
the former, first appeared in this journal. Mr. Walsh also published for a time 
about the close of the war. The Pacificator, a publication on about the same 
line as its successor, The Banner of the South. 

The Southern Medical and SurgicalJournal, spoken of more fully in that 
portion of this work devoted to the medical profession, was published in Au- 
gusta from 1845 until some years after the close of the war, and was of high 
repute in its peculiar field. ^ 

Two papers are published in Augusta in the interests of the colored popu- 
lation. One is the Sentinel, a political journal, edited by Prof. R R Wright- 
the other, a religious paper. The Georgia Baptist, edited by Rev. W J White' 



>90 History of Augusta. 



TJie Georgia Baptist is untiring in its efforts to elevate and improve the col- 
ored people mentally and morally, and wields a great influence among them. 

In 1885 TJic Sunday PJuvnix began publication. It was well printed, well 
edited, and a very interesting and readable sheet, but the experiment of a purely 
Sunday issue does not seem to succeed except in a large city, and \.\\q P/urnix 
soon suspended. 

For a time the labor interest published The Globe and Lance, which was 
edited with vigor, but having only a limited constituency, was discontinued 
about a year since. 

Tlie Augusta Gazette, started as was generally supposed as a rival to the 
venerable Chronicle, soon went the way of the other competitors which have 
entered the lists against that ancient paper at various periods in its prolonged 
career. 

No sketch of Augusta journalism would be complete without some account 
of those who, while not in the editorial department, have been remarkable for 
long and faithful service. Mr. John L. Stockton, now deceased, was for a num- 
ber of years manager of the Constitutionalist. He was a man of many pecu- 
liarities and even eccentricities, but was gifted with sound judgment and much 
executive ability. The difficulties under which Southern journalism labored 
during the war were extremely trying, but Mr. Stockton not only maintained 
the Constitutionalist in good working order, but kept up the Field and Fire- 
side, a much more difficult matter. 

Captain George B. Adam was for thirty years bookkeeper of the Chronicle, 
and only resigned that position because elected treasurer of Richmond county 
and bookkeeper of the Augusta, Gibson and Sandersville Railroad Company. 
During the yellow fever epidemic of 1854 Captain Adam remained at his post 
in the Chronicle office. During the war he was absent in the field command- 
ing the Clinch Rifles, one of the city's historic companies, but at the conclu- 
sion of hostilities resumed his position of trust and confidence. 

Mr. Edward C. McCarty, and his brother. Mr. Jeremiah McCarty, the form- 
er now bookkeeper, and the latter collector of the Chronicle, have been in the 
employ of that paper for a quarter of a century. 

Mr. John Anderson, foreman, has spent his life in the composing room of 
the Chronicle, excepting the four years of the war when he served as a valiant 
soldier under the Confederate flag. Mr. Anderson began as an apprentice boy, 
and rose step by step to the important position he now holds, one of prime im- 
portance in the organization of a newspaper. 



Societies. 291 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

SOCIAL. SECRET, LITERARY, AND BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES. 

The Drama— Commercial Cluh — St. Valentine Club — Scheutzen — Gun Club — Irish Organ- 
izations — Jockey Club — Tournaments — Bicycle Club — Athletic Association — Poultry and Pet 
Stock Associations — Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — Origin and Good Work 
— Widow's Home — Women's Christian Temperance Union — Ministerial Association — Orphan 
Asylum— Library — Sheltering Arms— Hayne Circle — Confederate Survivors — Drummers — 
Grand Army of the Republic — Catholic Knights — Masons — Odd Fellows — Knights of Pythias 
— Good Templars — Miscellaneous Organizations — Colored Organizations. 

AS early as 1790 the drama seems to have been an established institution in 
Augusta. An actress named Wall was a great favorite, and in the poet's 
corner of that day is eulogized as ' sweetest syren of the Augustan stage." It 
does not appear, however, that there was any theater building till 1798, when 
one was erected on the river bank, or Bay street, near Elbert, or the old court- 
house there situate, was so used. This was destroyed by fire in the fall of 1808. 
The fire was supposed to have been of incendiary origin, and the city council 
offered a reward for the detection of the criminal. In December, 1808, Rob- 
ert McRae, Richard Wilde, Daniel Macmurphey, Samuel Hale, Abraham A. 
Leggett, Henry L McRae, John U. Shinholster, Joseph W. Jarvis, James Wilde, 
Zachariah Rossel, Daniel Savage, Willoughby Barton, Albert Brux, Thomas I. 
Wray, and John B. Barnes were incorporated as "The Thespian Society and 
Library Company of Augusta," and appear to have rebuilt the theater in the 
same place, where it continued till 1823. Tradition relates that the elder 
Booth, Thomas Althorp Cooper, and other noted actors performed there. From 
an aged citizen, now deceased, we have heard one reminiscence of this ancient 
dramatic seat. Having labored for nearly a score of years on his invention, 
Mr. William Longstreet, in 1808, exhibited a steamboat on the Savannah 
River opposite Augusta. From lack of means or skilled workmen, Mr. Long- 
street was unable to construct his machinery of iron, according to his original 
design, and compelled to rely largely on wood. The use of this material and 
the natural defects of all infant discoveries, made the boat present a crude ap- 
pearance, but in spite of these drawbacks it demonstrated that a vessel could 
be propelled through the water by steam. As usual, the inventor came in for 
a fair share of that ridicule awarded the world's benefactors at first, and an 
actor of the day, catching at the ludicrous side as usual with his calling, sang 
a song in the old theater, a verse or two whereof has been preserved : 

" Can you rovv the boat ashore, 

Billy-boy, Billy-boy ? 
Can you row the boat ashore. 

Gentle Billy } 
Can you row the boat ashore, 
Without a paddle or an oar, 

Billy-boy?" 



292 History of Augusta. 



Tradition relates that Mr. Longstreet was in tiie theater when this precious 
effusion was first warbled, and nettled alike at the song and the titters with 
which it was greeted, rose from his seat, fixed a glance on the son of Thespis, 
which caused the notes to die away in his throat, and majestically strode out 
of the building. 

On the burning of the Bay Street Theater in 1823, Dr. McWhortcr erected 
another on Ellis street, near Centre, which was destroyed in the great fire of 
April 3, 1829, which laid a large part of the city in ashes. In this theater Joe 
Jefferson played at the outset of his now famous career. 

In the next year William W. Montgomery, Thomas I. Wray, Jacob G. 
McWhorter, Francis Ganahl, and Benjamin Baird were incorporated as the 
Augusta Theater Company, and built another theater on Ellis street, between 
Jackson and Campbell, for many years known as the Augusta Opera House, 
though originally termed Concert Hall. This theater was, in turn, destroyed 
by fire in 1881, and, though rebuilt, was finally devoted to business purposes, 
the theater taking up its quarters in the Masonic Hall, as rebuilt in 1881. On 
the destruction of this building by fire in February, 1887, a new Theater Com- 
pany was formed, and a handsome new theater erected on the corner of Jack- 
son and Greene streets For some years past Mr. Sanford H. Cohen has been 
the recognized head of theatrical amusements in Augusta. His abilities as a 
manager have been so successful that no difficulty was found in organizing the 
company which owns the present theater, a building up to the best order of 
modern theatrical architecture and appointment. 

The Commercial Club was founded in 1883, and is a solid organization, 
occupying among the gentlemen of Augusta about the same position in point 
of social reunion as the English clubs. 

The St. Valentine Society is an organization which, like the famous Mardi 
Gras associations of New Orleans, confines itself to an annual celebration of the 
carnival. The St. Valentine ball is the social event of the Augusta season, 
and admission thereto is a certificate of standing in fashionable society. 

The Deutscher Freundschaftsbund is a social and benevolent organization, 
instituted in 1875, by the German citizens of Augusta, and has also an annual 
ball, which is a social event of great interest with its members and their com- 
patriots. 

The Deutscher Scheutzen Club of Augusta is an organization on the model 
of the Scheutzen clubs, common among the German population, devoted to 
marksmanship with the rifle, and good fellowship. The club has very hand- 
some and well appointed grounds near Augusta, which not only serve the pur- 
poses of the association, but are largely patronized by picnic parties, society 
celebrations, etc. The club is a universal favorite in Augusta, and has con- 
ferred a great public benefit not only by providing a suitable pleasure ground, 
but by practically demonstrating that true cheerfulness and joviality are en- 



Societies. 293. 

tirely consistent with temperance, good order, and decorum. The club has a 
monthly target practice, and once a year a grand fest, lasting two or three 
days, and a decided gala event, not only for the club, but the general public. 

The Augusta Gun Club is a social organization established in 1884, and 
now a chartered company, its objects being the promotion of skill with the 
shot-gun and the protection of game. During the spring and summer months 
it practices weekly at clay pigeons, a species of clay disc which when thrown 
by a spring technically called a " trap," darts through the air at high speed, 
and with a motion somewhat resembling that of a swift-flying bird. This club 
had an act passed by the Legislature in 1886, to forbid hunting at improper 
seasons of the year in Richmond county, destruction of game by trapping, etc., 
the operation of which statute has been exceedingly beneficial. The club has 
grounds near the Schuetzenplatz. 

The Emmet Club is a social and patriotic organization among the Irish cit- 
izens of Augusta. It has a large hall in the city at which its meetings are 
held, and which is the assembly room and headquarters generally of the other 
Irish organizations of the city, the Hibernian Society, the Land League, and 
the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Great interest is taken by the Irish citizens 
of Augusta in these various organizations. They are all strong in number and 
devoted to the memory and interests of the beautiful Green Isle. 

The Gentleman's Driving Park Association and Augusta Jockey Club are 
devoted to the sports of the turf Augusta has always been noted for its love 
of fine horses and high mettled racers. As early as 18 10 there was a race 
course (a quarter mile track) at the then foot of Centre street, now Green 
street. Later on, the course was about where the Baptist Church now stands, 
at the intersection of Green and Jackson streets. Still later, the LaFayette 
race course was established in the southwestern portion of the city, and as the 
growth of population encroached upon that also, a new track was laid out on 
the fair grounds, in the southeastern portion of the city. On this many famous 
trials of speed have been had and exciting tournaments or tilts held. The 
rules of tilting, with saber, are as follows : 

Rules for Tilting — First. 
Right cut. — Seven inch head, supported by a white pine peg, tive-eighths inch diameter, ex- 
posed three inches, on a post six feet three inches high, to count I 

Second. 
Ouarte Point. — Ring three inches in diameter, to be suspended six feet from the ground on 

horizontal bar, to count 3 

Third. 
Lett Cut. — Seven-inch head, on post six feet eight inches high, supported by white pine 

peg, five-eighths inch in diameter, three inches exposed, to count 4 

Fourth. 
Tierce Point. — Ring three inches in diameter, suspended seven feet from ground on hori- 
zo ntal bar, to count 3 



294 History of Augusta. 



Fifth. 
Ri»-lit Cut Ag.iinst Infantry. — Leatlier head six inches in diameter, on post sixteen inches 
hi<j;^h, to count • 

Sixth. 

The e.xercisc as prescril^ed by Upton to count 7 

Horsemanship to count i 

Maximum on each run 20 

Time. — Eleven seconds. 

The uprights to be 75 feet apart. Time Hag, 75 feet ahead of first upright. Making total 
length of run 375 feet. 

Tilter must come up to the time Hag with liis saber at the " carry." 

Should the tilter fail to make the run from time flag to last upright in eleven seconds, he 
will lose his entire score for that run. 

After the time flag drops, the count will be for or against the tilter, and he will not be al- 
lowed a new start under any circumstances, unless the track be obstructed, or head or ring 

fall off. 

The peg must be cut or broken through where struck by edge of saber. If not severed at 
this point the head will not count. 

The " infantry head " must be struck by the edge of the saber. 

Tilters must be in full uniform — plumes and gauntlets may be omitted. 

Any tilter shouting at or wilfully striking his horse with saber, forfeits his score for that 
run. 

There being no prescribed method in " Upton " for discharging, the rings may be disposed 
of by an upward or downward motion, at the option of the tilter. 

The Fair Ground track was afterwards devoted to the Gentlemen's Driving- 
Park Association, and a very fine one-mile race course was established by the 
Exposition Company on its grounds in Woodlawn, just in rear of the Schuetz- 
enplatz and Gun Club grounds. 

The Bicyle Club was organized in 1886, and has a good membership of 
wheelmen, some of thein celebrated for proficiency. They have a fine track on 
the old base ball grounds of the Athletic Association. 

The Athletic Association for some years maintained as fine a base ball club 
as was in the Southern League, and many exciting games were witnessed on its 
grounds in 1884 and 1885. The celebrated game of thirteen innings Augusta 
vs. Atlanta, finally won by the former after a terrific contest, was witnessed by 
an excited audience of several thousands. Though not now in active opera- 
tion, the association developed and fostered a strong taste for athletic sports in 
Augusta. 

The Richmond County Poultry and Pet Stock Association is a flourishing 
organization whose objects are indicated by its name. It has done much to 
improve the breed of dogs and fowls, and given several very creditable exhi- 
bitions. Of one we have heard an amusing account from the orator appointed 
to deliver the opening address. The affair was unusually successful ; exhibits 
of every character had poured in beyond all expectation, and an immense au- 
dience had assembled. As the orator arose to open the exposition every bird 



Societies. 2q, 

and animal seemed to do its utmost to drown his vole. Tl,e A^gTb^,;;!^ 
every note from tl,e sliarp yap! yap! of the excitable spaniel to the deep bay 
of the mastiff; the game cocks crowed with unutterable fierceness- the pi/ 
eons cooed, ducks quacked, turkies gobbled, geese screamed, and' pea-fowl 
screeched. Even the little birds almost burst their tiny throats chirping and 
tw,t.ermg; and for a moment our friend stood aghast, but being not easily 
daunted, and takmg in the humor of the situation, went on with his speech in 
dunib show am,d an uproar probably no speaker ever confronted before 

One of the most estimable organizations in Augusta is the Georgia Society 
for the Prevent.on of Cruelty to Animals. This was incorporated in , 873 and 
owes ,ts existence to the kind heart and untiring energy of Miss Louis; W 
K,ng a daughter of Hon. John P. King. Though cut off in the bloom of her 
youth. th,s gentle lady has left a blessed memory behind her in this and some 
o her works of beneficence and compassion. Through her exertions the soci- 
ety was organized, and the Legislature prevailed upon to pass laws to prevent 
or pumsh acts of cruelty to the brute creation. It is now an oft-ense against the 
aws o Georgia, " cruelty" being defined as "any willful act, omission, or neg- 
lect vvhereby unjustifiable physical pain, suftiring or death is caused or per- 

Tl , M ,!- ™"'"" ''"'' S'^«» '1'^ st»t"le its full beneficial efiect 

Through M,.ss K.ng's efforts the city council of Augusta also legislated upon 
he subject, and made it an ofl^ense cognizable in the Recorder's Court to over- 
load any beast of burden, or to work one when bruised, maimed, sick or lame- 
or to cruelly beat or ill use any such animal. Under the operation of thes^ 
enactments dog fighting and cock-fighting and the shooting of live pigeons or 
other b,rds at gun club matches are unknown, and beasts of burden are sel- 
dom tl-used. While thus invoking the strong arm of the law to protect man's 
humble dependents Miss King also relied strongly on persuasive measures, 
and as long as she hved ofl-ered annual rewards to the dravmen and wagon- 
ers for the best kept animals, and gave prizes to the school'children for com- 
positions on the duty of kindness to the brute creation Miss King was in- 
deed, an angel of mercy. The seal of the society beautifully typifies her' no- 
ble and gentle soul. It represent a seraphic form waving a sword of fire be- 
fore an inhuman monster of a man about to strike his overladen horse, who has 
fallen in the shafts, with a huge cudgel over the poor brute's helpless head 
The society for the prevention of cruelty to animals is still in full operation. It 
keeps a skilled and experienced agent constantly on duty ,0 prevent or report 
nfractions of the law, and has established branch organizations in most of the 
leading cities of the State. 

.,- TZ^^'t" ^^? ^^'^°'^'' "°"^" '' ^"°'^^^'' '"^titution which owes its ori- 
gin to Miss king s benevolence. Here, in a substantial and comfortable build- 



296 ' History of Augusta. 

The Woman's Exchange and the Industrial Home are institutions which 
owe their origin to the charitable impulses of other ladies of Augusta. The ob 
ject of the Woman's Exchange is specified in its articles of organization as fol- 
lows: "The object of this association shall be to to enable women to sell their 
handiwork of all kinds, or to enable them, for the betterment of their condition, 
to sell such valuables as remain to them, or to assist them to get employment 
for the support of themselves or their families, and for all kindred purposes." 
The exchange, though of recent origin, has already proven potent for good. 

The Industrial Home is the work of mercy and compassion itself Here 
the unhappy victims of man's accursetl deceit and brutality are given a refuge, 
the institution being intended as a reformatory refuge for fallen women, and un- 
der its protecting roof are a dozen or more poor unfortunates who in the even- 
ing of a misspent life are sheltered from the outer blasts. 

The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is another form of feminine 
effort to do good. Each Thursday the members meet to implore the Divine 
blessing on their efforts to stay the evil of drunkenness. In every way, by 
letters, by tracts, by addresses, by memorials, by protests the union is heard in 
favor of temperance and temperance measures. 

The Young Men's Christian Association has been in existence in Augusta 
for a number of years. At one time it languished, but was soon reorganized, 
and is now on a firmer foundation than ever. It has a strong membership, and 
is about to erect a fine hall on its own ground. In connection with the usual 
reading-room and hall for devotional exercises, it has a well equipped gymna- 
sium for the use of members. 

The Ministerial Association of Augusta is composed of the pastors of most 
of the churches in the city, and from the character of its membership is an ex- 
ceedingly strong and influential body. Its remonstrance against fashionable 
follies has been found of powerful effect, and in works of charity it is a most 
efficient instrumentality. 

The Sheltering Arms is a most beneficent institution under a most appro- 
priate and endearing name. In the huge factories of Augusta whole families 
work, and the province of the Sheltering Arms is to care for the infants and 
very small children while the mother is at the loom. 

In 1852 the Augusta Orphan Asylum was incorporated, Thomas W. Miller, 
Henry H. Cumming, Edward V. Campbell, John Milledge, Artemus Gould, 
Lewis D. Ford, and John R. Dow being the incorporators, with power to con- 
duct an institution for the care of orphan children, to provide for their mainte- 
nance and education, and bind them out at a suitable age to some useful trade 
or calling until majority. In 1855 operations were begun in a rented house 
with four orphans. In 1855 Mr. Isaac S. Tuttle, a philanthropic citizen, left 
his residence at the corner of Walker and Center streets as the asylum, and en- 
dowed it with $50,000 of other property. In 1859 Dr. Newton, Mr. Tuttle's 



Young Men's Library Association. 297 

stepson, left the asylum a further benefaction of $200,000, and, under author- 
ity of an act of the Legislature, the city council g.ive it the use of two hundred 
shares of Georgia railroad stock. From the organization of the asylum up to 
1870 Mr. Artemas Gould managed its finances with such skill that in that year 
when he resigned the capital of the institution was $348,071. The old Tuttle 
mansion proving too small, a new and very handsome building was erected in 
the southwestern part of the city, near the Georgia railroad, in 1873. The edi- 
fice is four stories high, surmounted by a lofty cupola, and is surrounded with 
ample grounds laid out with shrubbery and flowers. The house and grounds 
cost $173,759.11 ; the property in income-paying bonds and stocks is $244,- 
2 17.23, making a total capital of $417,986.37. The institution has from a hun- 
dred to one hundred and twenty-five inmates, supported at a cost of some- 
thing less than one hundred dollars per head per annum. 

The Young Men's Library Association was founded in 1848. We have 
already mentioned that in 1808 "The Thespian Society and Library Company 
of Augusta" was incorporated, but the literary feature seems to have yielded 
to the dramatic. In 1827 Henry H. Gumming, George W. Crawford, Thomas 
J. Casey, Augustine Slaughter, John P. King, James P. Waddel, James Moore, 
Peter Bennoch, and Robert R. Reid were incorporated as "The Augusta Li- 
brary Society." 

For a number of years the library association had its rooms on the north- 
west corner of Mcintosh and Ellis streets, but since 1884 has been housed in a 
building of its own on the corner of Broad and Jackson streets. The library 
now numbers some 7,000 volumes. 

In the hall of the library the Hayne Circle holds its meetings. This is a 
literary coterie of some five or six years standing, named after Paul H. Hayne, 
the poet. It is a somewhat informal organization, though having a corps of 
officers and an order of exercises, but has a strong hold on its members, and is 
a recognized literary power in Augusta. Ordinarily some novel, play, or other 
literary production is selected as a central theme. An analysis of some of the 
leading characters is assigned to members of the circle, who are appointed some 
weeks in advance, and expected to prepare and read papers on the themes 
assigned them. After the regular papers are read, a symposium is had, or a 
general running discussion wherein the merits of the contributors and the views 
generally of the circle on the work selected for consideration, are in order. 
This is a sort of literary free for all, and is often a bright encounter of wits. 
Each member is then called on for a quotation from some author, the selection 
being left entirely to his or her taste. Assignments for the next meeting are 
then announced by the presiding officer, and any necessary business transacted. 

The Confederate Survivors Association consists of Confederate veterans. 
Every man who served under the Southern colors is admissible on being 
vouched for by two comrades and giving in his rank and command. Quart- 
38 



298 History of Augusta. 



eriy meetings are held, and on the 26th of April each year, Memoral Day, the 
association has its annual meeting, and after the transaction of business drinks 
in silence and standing a toast to the Confederate dead. At the funeral of each 
member, a detail, and sometimes the whole association, attends with a war- 
worn, tattered, and smoke-grimed stand of Confederate colors. The maimed 
members, those who have lost arm or leg, are the color guard. 

The Travelers' Protective Association (Post C, Augusta division) is a soci- 
ety of traveling salesmen, commonly called " drummers," organized for pur- 
poses of social intercourse and mutual assistance in matters appertaining to this 
important commercial instrumentality. 

The Catholic Knights of America have two divisions in Augusta, St. Joseph's 
branch No. 62, and St. Patrick's branch No. 66, both strong in membership and 
well sustained. 

The Grand Army of the Republic has a post in the city, Augusta Post No. 
44, with a good membership. 

The Masonic fraternity is exceedingly strong and influential in Augusta and 
has an ancient history. In 1796 the Grand Lodge of Georgia was incorpor- 
ated; the act reciting that "William Stephens, grand master; James Jack.son, 
past grand master ; William Stith, deputy grand master ; James Box Young, 
senior grand warden; Edward Lloyd and Belthazer Shaffer, past grand war- 
dens; Ulrich Tobler, jr., grand warden; George Jones, past grand treasurer; 
James Robertson, grand treasurer ; David Bridie Mitchell, past grand secre- 
tary, and John Blackstock, grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of Free Ma- 
sons in this State, have, by their petition stated, that there has existed, and 
still exists in this State, divers lodges or societies of Free Masons, on an an- 
cient establishment since the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty-five, 
over which there is a presiding or superintending Grand Lodge, composed of 
the petitioners as members." 

Prior even to this early date there were Masons in Augusta, since in 1790 
they were voted the garret of the Richmond Academy as a lodge room. 

In 1824 Samuel Hale, Thomas I. Wray, Augustine Slaughter, WilHam W. 
Holt, B. D. Thompson, John W. Wilde, and Robert R. Reid were nominated 
commissioners to conduct a lottery for the purpose of raising $20,000 to be 
appropriated to the building of a Masonic Hall in the city of Augusta. 

In 1825 La P'ayette visited Augusta, and being a Mason, was welcomed in 
an address by John W. Wilde, grand commander of Georgia Encampment 
No. I. 

In 1827 the General Assembly passed an act, which after reciting that the 
money provided for by the act of 1824 had been raised, enacted that the Ma- 
sonic Hall should be for the use of all the Masonic bodies of the city, and ap- 
pointed Samuel Hale, Augustin Slaughter, Thomas I. Wray, Birkett D. 
Thompson, John W. Wilde, Robert Raymond Reid, Alexander McKenzie, 



Secret Societies. 299 

William T. Gould, William Duncan, Thomas G. Casey, Jonathan S. Beers, 
James C. Morgan, Francis Ganahl, and their successors as "the trustees of the 
Masonic Hall in the city of Augusta." The act states that at that time the 
Masonic bodies in Augusta were the Consistory of the Sublime Degrees, Geor- 
gia Encampment No. i, Adoniram Council No. i, Augusta Chapter No. 2, 
Social Lodge No. 5, and Webb's Lodge No. 19. 

In the early part of 1828 the Masonic lodge room was on Mcintosh street, 
but on June 2 of that year the Masonic Hall was opened, Governor William 
Schley delivering the address 

In 1877 the trustees were authorized by a two-thirds vote of their whole 
membership, approved by like vote of all the Masonic bodies in the city, to 
issue $50,000 in bonds for the purpose of erecting a new hall, and in 1881 the 
old one was taken down and a new one erected. This was destroyed by fire 
in February, 1887, but in its stead was at once erected a third, and still hand- 
somer edifice, which is one of the architectural ornaments of the city. 

The large number of societies at present can only be briefly mentioned. 
They are Master Masons, Social Lodge, No. i ; and Webb Lodge, No. 166;* 
Royal Arch, Augusta Chapter, No. 2, and Georgia Commandery, No. i ; R. and 
S. M. Adoniram Council, No. i ; Scottish Rite, Enoch Lodge oi Perfection, No. 
I, 14th degree; Augusta Chapter, Rose Croix, No. 2, i8th degree; Augusta 
Consistory, No. I, 30th degree; and Council of Kodosh, No. i, 32d degree; 
also a colored society, A. Y. M. Benneker Lodge, No. 3. 

The Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows in Georgia was established in Savannah 
in 1842. The Grand Lodge of the State was incorporated in 1843. ^^ Au- 
gusta there are Washington Lodge, No. 7, established in 1844; Miller Lodge, 
No. 10, in 1845 ; Richmond Lodge, No. loi, in 1883, and Augusta Encamp- 
ment, No. 5, shortly after. There are also two colored lodges, Boaz Lodge, 
No. 1686, and Star of Bethlehem Lodge. The Augusta Odd Fellows have 
long occupied a most prominent place in the order in the State, almost all the 
grand masters for nearly a half century being from this city. 

The Knights of Pythias have the Vigilant Lodge No. 2 ; Endowment Sec- 
tion, No. 118 ; Fountain City Lodge; and Augusta Division No. 6, U. R. R. 
of P. 

The Knights of Honor have Pendleton Lodge, No. 220; Shepard Lodge, 
No. 721 ; and Benner Lodge, No. 1259. There is also Louise Lodge, No. 141, 
D. of P., Knights and Ladies of Honor. 

The Knights of the Golden Rule have Castle Richmond, No. 41 ; the Order 
of the Golden Chain, Augusta Lodge, No. 26 ; Royal Arcanum, Ford Council, 
No. 34 ; Chosen Friends, Social Lodge, No. 2 ; Knights of the Golden Eagle, 
Ivanhoe Castle, No. i ; and Red Cross Castle, No. 4. 

The Independent Order of Red Men have Osceola Tribe, No. 9, and Pap- 
poose Tribe No. 10. 



300 History of Augusta. 



The temperance orders are Good Templars, Martha Washington Lodge, 
and Sibley Lodge, No. 88. 

There are also Augusta Lodge, No. 1 19, O. K. S. B; Obediah Lodge, No. 
1 19, I. O. B. B ; Teutonia Lodge, No. 429, D. O. H ; and Augusta Lodge No, 
2, A. O. U. W. 

There are also societies and orders in many avocations, among others Au- 
gusta Division No. 202, Order of Railway Conductors ; Locomotive Brother- 
hood, Augusta Dental Association, Typographical Union, Knights of Labor, 
Bricklayers Union, etc., etc. 

The colored societies in Augusta are exceedingly numerous, and a sketch 
of their origin and progress will be found of interest. On emancipation the 
colored population was confronted with an exigency it had not known in slavery. 
If the freedman was sick there was no one interested out of his immediate circle 
of family and friends to care for him ; if he died, none to decently bury him, 
and family and friends were as poor and helpless as himself In this emergency 
they established benevolent societies. A monthly fee was required, whieh 
was for the purpose of helping one another when sickness or death came. 
These societies met with every sort of trouble. As the membership grew in 
numbers the treasury swelled, and upon this money avaricious eyes were cast, 
and it was diminished in various ways, the failure of the Freedman's Bank swal- 
lowing up much of it. Then politics crept into the societies and many collapsed. 
Others struggled on, and as politics were weeded out began to prosper, and 
encouraged by this example other societies sprang up, until now there are 
about twenty-five strong organizations with a large membership, and working 
much good. The city has but few negroes to bury, and in nine cases out of 
ten they are either expelled from the societies, or never belonged to them. 

The plan of operation is about the same in all of them. A person joins and 
pays his initiation fee of one dollar, and monthly dues of fifty cents. During 
the sickness of a member he or she receives a weekly benefit of two dollars and 
fifty cents, and in case of death twenty- five dollars is devoted to funeral ex- 
penses and thirty dollars to the widow. In some societies when a member is 
sick there is a committee to furnish nourishment and medicine, all of which is 
paid for by the society. The societies are not confined to grown people, there 
being some for children. 

The names of the societies seem to have been selected more for euphony 
than for appropriateness, as the following will show : 

Morning Stars of Benevolence, Union Waiters Society, Joint Club, Geor- 
gia Benevolent Association, Devoted Brothers and Sisters, Sons and Daugh- 
ters of Benevolence, Brothers and Sisters of the Evening Star, Brown Benefi- 
cial Society, Trinity Moral — two societies, Thankful Moral, No. i, Brothers 
and Sisters of the Morning Star, Watchman's Banner, Banner Light of Geor- 
gia, Stars of Bethlehem, South Carolina Benevolence, Mutual Benefit Associa- 



Educational. 301 



tion, Brothers and Sisters of Love, Lillies of the Valley, St. Phillip's Benevo- 
lent, Mutual Benefit Association, Mutual Aid Society, Bonds of Hope. Sons 
and Daughters of Jerusalem, Young Mutual Aid, and Young Brown Beneficial. 
The Union Waiters Society is an old organization, and strong in numbers. 
The Moral Societies have also full ranks and have great influence. By means 
of festivals, picnics, etc., in addition to the regular dues, the society treasuries 
are well replenished. 



CHAPTER XXVH. 

EDUCATIONAL. 

Early Educational System of Georgia— The University— The Academy— The Poor School 
—Early Appropriations— School Population— Academies and Schools of 1828— Course of In- 
struction — The Educational Commission of 1836— Common School System of 1837— School 
Fund from 1823 to 1838— Common School System Abolished in 1840— Poor School Fund of 
1843 -Large Increase of Fund in 1852 and 1858— The Perfected Poor School System— Out- 
break of War Prevents Fair Trial— The Academies— Their Number and Curious Names— 
"The Turn Out "—Codification of the Laus in i860— Educational Benefactions in Augusta- 
Old Schools— The Houghton Institute— Augusta Free School— Richmond Academy— Edu- 
cational Clauses in State Constitutions of 1861 and 1865— Education During the War— Con- 
stitutional Provisions of 1868— System of 1870— The Richmond County System. 

AT a very early period in its history the State of Georgia paid great atten- 
tion to collegiate education. In 1784, in providing for the laying out of 
Franklin and Washington counties, the Legislature set apart 20,000 acres of 
the best quality in each county, " for the endowment of a college or semi- 
nary of learning" and vested the title thereto in the governor for the time 
being and a board of seven trustees. In the next year they created a State 
university by an act passed with great formality, and introduced by a pompous 
preamble. While now only archaic and curious in itself, it is of present use 
as showing the extreme importance attached to intellectual development in 
Georgia, even at that early day, when men were just out of the throes of the 
Revolution. It begins thus : " By the representatives of the freemen of the 
State of Georgia in General Assembly, and by the authority of the same. An 
Act for the more full and complete establishment of a public seat of learning in 
this State. 

"As it is the distinguishing happiness of free governments, that civil order 
should be the result of choice, and not necessity, and the common wishes of 



302 History of Augusta. 



the people become the laws of the land, their public prosperity, and even ex- 
istence, very much depends upon suitably forming the minds and morals of 
their citizens. Where the minds of the people in general are viciously dispos- 
ed and uiiprincipltd, and their conduct disorderly, a free government will be 
attended with greater confusions, and with evils more horrid than the wild, un- 
cultivated state of nature : It can only be happy where the public principles 
and opinions are properly directed and their manners regulated. This is an 
influence beyond the sketch of laws and punishments, and can be claimed only 
by religion and education. It should, therefore, be among the first objects of 
those who wish well to the national prosperity, to encourage and support 
the principles of religion and morality, and early to place the youth under 
the forming hand of society, that by instruction they may be moulded to the 
love of virtue and good order. Sending them abroad to other countries for 
their education will not answer these purposes, is too humiliating an acknow- 
ledgement of the ignorance and inferiority of our own, and will always be the 
cause of so great foreign attachments, that upon principles of policy it is not 
admissible. 

"This country, in the times of our common danger and distress, found such 
security in the principles and abilities which wise regulations had before es- 
tablished in the minds of our countrymen, that our present happiness, joined to 
pleasing prospects, should conspire to make us feel ourselves under the strong- 
est obligation to form the youth, the rising hope of our land, to render the like 
glorious and essential services to our country. 

''And Whereas, for the great purpose of internal education, divers allot- 
ments of land have, at different times, been made particularly by the legislature 
at their sessions in July, one thousand seven hundred and eighty- three ; and 
February, one thousand seven hundred and eighty four, all of which may be 
comprehended and made the basis of one general and complete establishment. 
Therefore, the representatives of the freemen of the State of Georgia, in general 
assembly met this twenty fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand seven Jinndred and eighty-five, enact, ordain and declare, and by 
these presents it is ENACTED, Ordained, and Declared, ist. The general 
superintendence and regulation of the literature of this State, and in particular 
of the public seat of learning, shall be coinmittcd and entrusted to the Governor 
and Council, the Speaker of the House of Assembly and tlie Chief Justice of the 
State, for the time being, who shall, ex-officio, compose one board, denom- 
inated the Board of Visitors, hereby vested with all the powers of visitation, to 
see that the intent of this institution is carried into effect, and John Houstoun, 
James Habersham, William Few, Joseph Clay, Abraham Baldwin, William 
Houstoun, Nathan Brownson, John Habersham, Abiel Holmes, Jenkin Davies, 
Hugh Lawson, William Glascock, and Benjamin Taliaferro, esquires, who shall 
compose another board, denominated the Board of Trustees. These two 



Early Appropriations. 

boards united, or a n:ajo7ty of each of them, shall comp^"ii^7^n~7s 
ACADEMICUS of the University of Georgia." 

The act then made many regulations for the new institution, and provided 
further, that •'All public schools, instituted or to be supported by fun or 
pub,, mon.es ,„ th.s State, shall be considered as parts or members of the Uni- 

centlrLd'"^" °^ "'"r'f T' '° ~"''""'" "*= ""'""'^'y ""= educational 
cent r and supemsor of the State; but for many reasons this purpose failed of 

to at last VTr^ T'' 'r'"''''"' '"' "'^= ""'>- "^^^ - accomplished 
fact, at last, by the hberahty of a citizen of Augusta, Governor John lVlilled..e 

iTwh,: ; rbuii: ""^"^' '" ""'^ ''"-" ''-' '- ■■"^'"""°" •■- --^ -p™ 

The general school system of the State was this: wherever there was a 
local academy the State would grant some sort of subsidy for it, support 
an for the dt.ldren of the poor who could not pay any tuiti„n,'there wer^TpTrse 
and spasmodic appropriations for poor schools. There were thus two funds 
the academical and the poor school fund. The policy of the State was tha; 
education was the duty of the parent, and the appropriations horn I^me to 

cordmg as parents were partly, or wholly, unable to perform this duty At 
divers times efforts were made to consolidate the academical and poor school 
funds, and to establish a general and uniform system of free educatLi but tlte 

desuetude. The academy and the poor school were the features of the edu- 
ca lonal system of Georgia un.il ,868. when a general system of free educa- 
tion became a constitutional principle. Some further review of the old system 
may be of interest. =yMcin 

thorize7h^ T '^°''"T ""' ""P"""^'' '° g'-a-" -y person or persons au- 
horized by the several counties of the State one thousand acres of vacant land 
for erecting free schools. 

In ,792 such counties as had not then received i:i,ooo from the proceeds 
o the sales o the confiscated estates of loyalists were to have that sum fo 
the support of the county academy. 

and'r '^' V'7r'"' °': *'50,ooo was appropriated " for the future establishment 

and support of free schools throughout this State." The governor was author- 
zed to invest the same in bank, or other profitable stock. The preamble of 

this ac states that •• the present system of education in this State is n"t wel 
alculated for the general ditfusion. and equal distribution of useful learning ' 

It does not appear that any educational system was established under this 



In 182. the sum of $500,000 was set apart, "the one-half for the support 
and encouragement of free schools, and the other half for the permanent endow- 



304 History of Augusta. 



ment of county academies." It was provided that this appropriation should 
be called the school fund, and should be composed of bank stock as follows : 
l^ank of Darien, $200,000; the State Bank, $200,000; and bank of Augusta, 
$100,000. It was directed that inquiry be made what each county had then 
received from the State in confiscated property or other endowments for educa- 
tional purposes, and upon receipt of such information the interest on the school 
fund should be divided out among the several counties of the State on a basis 
to be thereafter arranged. 

In 1822 an effort was made to establish a poor school system. It was pro- 
vided that the Inferior Court of each county should appoint certain superin- 
tendents, not to exceed in number one for each militia district, to supervise 
"the education of the poor children of said county." These superintendents 
were to make out a list of the names of the poor children of the county from 
eight to eighteen, and transmit the same to the governor, but no child was to 
be enrolled whose parents or estate pay a tax exceeding fifty cents over and 
above their poll tax. On receipt of the enumeration the governor was to divide 
$i2,O0O among the counties, in "proportion to the number of poor children 
returned as above. It was provided that, on receipt of the county quota, the 
superintendents should cause such poor children to go to "such schools as may 
be convenient in their respective neighborhoods," but no child was to be "sent 
to school and paid for out of said fund, when such child has been taught read- 
ing, writing, and the usual rules of arithmetic ; " nor was any child to "be sent 
to school at public expense more than three years." The superintendents were 
also to take a general census of all children in the county, "as well poor as rich, 
and female as well as male, between the ages of eight and eighteen," and trans- 
mit the same to the Legislature. 

In the same year provision was made for an additional endowment of the 
county academies. One- half of the bank stock dividend, and all moneys in the 
treasury arising from escheats and reverted property, were to be divided out 
among the counties, so that, including the cash or other endowments previously 
received, each county should have $2,000; the residue then to be distributed 
in proportion to the representation from each county; where there was more 
than one academy in a county the money was to be pro-rated according to the 
number of their respective scholars; where there was no academy, the Inferior 
Court was to apply the fund, in its discretion, to educational purposes. 

In 1823 it was enacted that out of the bank dividends should be annually dis- 
tributed among the counties in proportion to the free white population therein, 
the sum of $20,000 " for the purpose of educating such children who are des- 
titute of the means of education." The Inferior Court was to appoint three 
trustees for the county who were to give bond in the sum of $1,000 each, and 
receive, apportion and disburse the poor school fund, and locate and regulate 
the schools. 



Educational. 305 



In 1824 the Senate directed its committee on public education and free 
schools to inquire into the relations of the Senatus academiais and the county 
academies. The committee reported that by the charter of the university it 
was made the duty of that institution to remedy the defects and advance the 
interests of literature throughout the State in general ; that it was also the law 
that all public schools instituted or supported by the State were under the 
superintendence of the university ; that it was the duty of the president, or 
some member of the faculty thereof, to annually visit and inspect each academy, 
but that this regulation had been found impracticable To obtain accurate in- 
formation, therefore, on the subject the committee recommended " that here- 
after it shall be the duty of the trustees of all academies in this State, which 
derive a part or the whole of their support from the State funds to make an 
annual report to the senator of the county in which the academy may be, of 
the following form : 

1. The number and salaries of instructors. 

2. The number of scholars. 

3. The annual income. 

4. Branches of learning taught. 

This was adopted. For a number of years the senators, there then being 
a senator to each county, communicated to the Senate committee on education 
the reports made them by the trustees of the academies in their respective 
counties. These reports, however, were extremely meager, and we find con- 
stant complaints that some of the trustees totally neglected their duty, and the 
majority of those who made returns did so in an unsatisfactory manner. 

Despite the unsatisfactory and unsystematic manner in which the state of 
the academies was reported to the Legislature, the academies themselves seem 
to have been carried on with a reasonable degree of efficiency. In 1826 Gov- 
ernor froup says in his annual message that " our academic institutions con- 
tinue to flourish." In the same document he speaks of the poor schools, thus : 
" It is recommended to you to consolidate the poor school fund, to augment it, 
to secure by sufficient guards its faithful application, and to diffiise its benefits 
as extensively as possible among the poor and indigent. These are the classes 
of the community who in their means of livelihood fall below mediocrity, and 
who, on this account, as well as on account of their numbers, have the strong- 
est claims for that assistance which will enable them by the instruction of pri- 
mary schools, to discharge in peace and in war, with most usefulness to them- 
selves and advantage to the country, all the duties of good citizens." 

The house committee on public education and free schools made quite an 
elaborate report on educational matters at this session. From this it appears 
that the State University at that time was conducted by a faculty consisting 
of a president, a professor of natural philosophy and botany, a professor of 
chemistry and mineralogy, a professor of mathematics, a professor of ethics and 
39 



3o6 History of Augusta. 



belles-lettres, and two tutors. The committee report in favor of a professor- 
ship of modern languages. The report then proceeds to say: " Tiie manner 
in which the funds heretofore set apart for the endowment of county acade- 
mies and for tlie encouragement and support of free schools, and the effects 
produced ne.xt demanded the examination of your committee. The school 
fund consists of five hundred thousand dollars, and is made up of 

Stock of the Bank of Darien $200,000 

" " Stale Bank 200,000 

■' '' " Bank of Augusta 100,000 

Total $500,000 

" The several acts which have been passed upon the subject of county acade- 
mies, commencing with the charter of the university in 1785, and terminating 
in 1824, obviously contemplate an efficient endowment of at.least one academy 
in each county. With this view that charter made each county academy a 
branch of the university, and subjected them to supervision accordingly. In 
furtherance of this view, also, was the act of confiscation and amercement in 
1792, authorizing commissioners from each county to purchase in confiscated 
property to the amount of ;^ 1,000. 

" The aid contemplated from this source was uncertain and precarious, even 
in the hands of the most fortunate, and with many was wholly inoperative. 
The amounts realized were small, and in but few instances beneficially applied. 
The present existing laws have affixed an estimate of this intended munificence 
by holding the intended beneficiaries accountable for only one-eighth of their 
nominal purchases. Under the new scheme of endowment now in progress, 
the older counties have been made to account for their ancient purchases. An 
equal participation in the fund distributed in 1824 and 1825 has been denied 
them, that they might be brought to an equality with their younger sisters, 
and then draw equally from the common parent until the receipts of each 
should amount to the sum of two thousand dollars. 

" This being effected, each county will be considered as specifically endowed, 
and thenceforward the profits of $250,000 in bank stock will be distributed 
amongst all the counties in the State, in proportion to their representation. 
For the last political year ending on the first day of November, the distribu- 
tive share amounted to the sum of $215.38. This is receivable at the treasury 
upon the joint application of the trustees of the incorporated academies in each 
county, and to be divided between them in proportion to the number of schol- 
ars usually taught in each. For a policy thus enlightened, and a munificence 
thus liberal, no further requital is demanded on the part of the State than that 
the participants of her bounty should keep a just and accurate account of the 
manner in which the same should be disbursed and applied, and make report 
thereof annually through the Senatus academicus to the Legislature. The pro- 



Educational. 307 



priety of such report is dictated by a sense of obligation, but its necessity is the 
positive requirement of the law. But notwithstanding these things are so, your 
committee regret to state that in the range which they have taken through the 
several reports made by the senators to the Senattis Academicus, they discover 
but slight traces of that particularity required by law, and which is so es- 
sential to a due course of legislation upon a subject so important. It was not 
to have been expected that any plan of endowment amidst a new and vary- 
ing population would have made any near approach to perfection ; hence the 
necessity of regular, detailed, periodical information, not only from each county 
but from the whole of the incorporated academies in the State. Information 
short of this would be short of the laws already in force, and insufficient to 
enable the State to dispense her practical and well aimed aids, and enforce due 
accountability on the part of her agent. To enforce a compliance with the 
laws in this regard, your committee beg leave to accompany this report with a 
resolution which they hope may be adopted, to wit : 

"Resolved, That no trustee, or commissioners of any incorporated academy 
shall hereafter be permitted to draw any funds from the treasury of this State, 
until they shall have presented a full and fair statement of the manner in which 
all sums previously drawn shall have been disbursed ; and that his excellency 
the governor be requested to enforce strictly the provisions of this resolution." 

The resolution was adopted. On the subject of poor schools the committee 
says: "By the act of 1821 poor schools were intended to be endowed by the 
profits of the one half of the school fund, which has already been shown to con- 
sist of a half million of dollars. Instead, however, of confining this depart- 
ment to its distributive share of the bank dividends it has found a better pro- 
vision and safer reliance in the increased liberality of the Legislatnre expressed 
in an act of 1823. This sets apart the sum of twenty thousand dollars to be 
distributed annually amongst the different counties of this State in proportion 
to the number of free white population in each county. Your committee have 
annexed a tabular statement showing the population of each county, and the 
amount which they are entitled to receive respectively. The sums thus pro- 
vided have been eagerly sought after, but the evidence of fidelity in their ap- 
plication and utility in their disbursement has not been furnished in a manner 
satisfactory to the minds of your committee. From some counties imperfect 
reports have been received, from others no reports at all. The several agents 
may have been faithful; if they have, the fact should have been made to ap- 
pear, as well for their own credit as for the needed information of the Legisla- 
ture ; if they have not, then the information was the more necessary to enable 
the Legislature to apply the corrective. In the absence of such information 
your committee are unable to determine whether the benefits intended by a 
charity, so kindly and so amply bestowed, have been or are likely to be realized. 
The subject is one of great interest and complexity and of novel introduction 



3o8 History of Augusta. 



among our citizens." The report then proceeds to say that the committee 
could not, for lack of time and requisite data, formulate a free school system, 
but recommended that Messrs. Campbell, Hull, of Clark, and Holt, of Rich- 
mond, be appointed a committee "to digest and report a plan of free schools 
suited to the condition of the poor school fund and of the dependent popula- 
tion of the State." The tabular statement annexed to this report shows that 
the then 58 counties of the State had a free white population of 233,305, and 
that the poor school fund was about 82 cents per head. The largest sum al- 
lotted any county was $1,603.72, the smallest $54.72. 

It does not appear that the committee recommended by this report to di- 
gest and report a plan of free schools took any action, but at the next session 
of the Legislature a bill was introduced "to establish a board of visitors to the 
poor schools, and to require teachers in the sever.1l districts to report the num- 
ber of poor children and teach the same," which was voted down. At the 
same session, that of 1827, the committee to whom was referred the reports of 
the county academies, report that the returns "present a condition creditable 
to the patrons of those institutions and flattering to the future reputation of 
the State." In this bright picture, however, the committee find one dark spot, 
"they have been unable to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion to what extent 
and proficiency classical education has been taught in these institutions." 
Starting with the proposition that "this branch of literature is so necessary in 
all systems of juvenile instruction, that few persons in modern days have ob- 
tained intellectual eminence whose minds have not received this training," the 
committee enter on a curious and elaborate argument to show that the intel- 
lectual future of Georgia depends on a better attention to classical learning in 
the academies of the State. After a long and labored disquisition on the util- 
ity of the classics as a means of mental training, the committee declare it "a 
source of melancholy regret that so little care should be bestowed by the pa- 
trons of our academies on this important part of juvenile education." 

In 1828 the clerk of the Court of Ordinary was made sole trustee of the 
poor school fund and manager of the poor schools. The justices of the peace 
were required to report to him "a list of all children in their respective districts, 
together with their names, ages, and sexes, whose extreme indigence entitle 
them to a participation in the poor school fund." The same act required that 
duplicate reports of the attendance at, and expenses of both poor schools and 
academies should be transmitted to the governor and the Scuatus Academicus, 

Of the educational system of the State at this date we have a very full and 
interesting account, thanks to a faithful compliance with the law by the officials 
of that date. It appears that the appropriation for the support of academies 
for 1828 was $14,307.44; and for poor schools. $7,425.58. It further appears 
that there were in operation eighty academies in seventy- five counties, with a 
total attendance of 1,479 male, and 973 female scholars. Some 304, not dis- 



Educational. 309 



tinguished by sex, were reported, making total 2,756, but twenty- seven acad- 
emies failed to report the number of scholars. If the same average obtained 
as in those reporting, there must have been at least 4,300 scholars attending 
the county academies in 1828. Some of the academies seem to haxe had a 
good attendance: the one in Greene county showing 119 scholars; that in 
Wilkes, 103; the Sparta Female Academy, 151. Richmond Academy has but 
fifty three; three report less than twenty, and one has only one scholar, a little 
miss. It further appears that at this time the university, pursuant to its charter, 
sought to exercise a supervisory control over all the academies receiving sup- 
port from the State, and that the Senatus Academiciis adopted the following 
resolution, which under the charter, had the force and effect of a statute, viz.: 

" In order to introduce uniformity into the academies connected with the 
University of Georgia, the SenaUis Academiciis prescribe to each the following 
course of studies and authors to be used preparatory to admission to college, 
viz.: Murray's English Grammar; arithmetic, to the end of the cube root; 
Ruddiman's Rudiments; Corderius, fifty colloquies at least ; Erasmus, at least 
one-half; Cornelius Nepos to Atticus; Caesar's Commentaries, six books; Cic- 
ero's Orations, at least nine to be read; Virgil, the Bucolics, Georgics, and six 
books of the ^neid ; Mair's or Clarke's introduction to making Latin ; Wet- 
tenhali's Greek Grammar; the Greek Testament, at least through John and the 
Acts ; Graeca Minora, to the end of the Dialogues. The above are essential 
to qualify the student to enter the Freshman class. In addition to these, the 
following are necessary for admission into the Sophomore class : Xenophon, 
four books; the whole of Horace ; Homer, one book ; Algebra, through sim- 
ple equations; geography, thoroughly, and a knowledge of the maps essential." 

The necessity of some standard appears by the report of studies pursued in 
the various academies, where all sorts of courses were pursued, as geology, 
botany, astronomy, and even theology. Some of the teachers, to be on the safe 
side, report " all branches." 

The poor school report is a sad affair. But thirty one counties, out of sev- 
enty-six have poor schools in operation, with 1.624 male and 1,471 female 
scholars, making, with 120 not distinguished by sex, a total of 3,215. In one 
county no one can be found who will act as superintendent of poor schools ; in 
another the old and new trustees are litigating over the fund ; in divers others 
the teachers are not paid. 

The Senate committee on public education and free schools reports "that 
the present free school system of Georgia is miserably defective, your commit- 
tee have had but too mortifying testimony in the returns of the several coun- 
ties submitted to their inspection during the present session; the fund set 
apart for free schools, though entirely inadequate to effect the important ^/^.y/V/- 
eratwn of furnishing the means for a plain axmX substantial education to every 
family in the State under a more regular and economical administration, has, 



3IO History of Augusta. 



it is feared, been dissipated with comparatively little benefit." They recom- 
mend the employment of a competent person to digest and arrange a system 
of free schools for consideration of the next General Assembly. 

At the next session in 1830 Governor Gilmer informs the Legislature in 
his message that the academy system is not advancing the cause of education, 
and says that " the appropriations for academical purposes which have been 
made for some years past, do not seem to have effected any public benefit at 
all equal to the expenditure." The poor schools seem to have improved con- 
siderably, being in operation in fifty-eight counties, with an attendance of about 
five thousand. The poor school fund for this year was $29,998. 15 ; the aca- 
demical fund $19,296.01. 

In 1836 the Legislature appropriated one-third of the surplus revenue of the 
United States, then about to be distributed among the States, as a permanent 
free school and educational fund, and authorized the appointment of a joint 
committee of five "to digest a plan of common school education, best adapted 
to the genius, habits of life and of thought of the people of Georgia," with 
power to appoint a sub-committee of two, " to visit different parts of the United 
States, and particularly the New England States, and institute a correspond- 
ence with such persons as they may think proper, either in the United States 
or Europe, or both, for the purpose of getting information of the different sys- 
tems of common school education." 

At the next session, in 1837, Governor Schley in his message to the Legis- 
lature, said: "The great cause of education deserves your fostering care. 
About $40,000 are now annually distributed to the counties, and constitute 
what are denominated 'the Academical and Poor School Funds.' This system 
is believed to be radically defective. There should be no such designation as 
'academic' and 'poor school,' because they are invidious and insulting. Pov- 
erty, though a great inconvenience, is no criir.e, and it is highly improper, while 
you offer to aid the cause of education, to say to a portion of the people ' you 
are poor.' Thousands of freemen who though indigent, are honest, patriotic, 
and valuable citizens, will refuse your bounty, and despise the hand which offers 
it, because it is accompanied with insult. These funds should be consolidated 
under the title of ' Educational Fund,' and applied to the use of primary schools, 
teaching only the rudiments of English education." 

At the same session the joint committee to prepare a system of common 
schools made its report. This was ordered to be printed with the acts of that 
year, which was not done, but from "an act to establish a general system of 
education by common schools," approved December 26, 1837, their conclu- 
sions seem to have been reduced to law. This statute provides that the aca- 
demic and poor school funds should be consolidated as a general fund for com- 
mon schools ; that there should annually be elected a board of five commis- 



Educational. 31 i 



sioners in each county, who should lay the county off into school districts, to 
correspond as nearly as possible to the militia districts, and have general charge 
of the matter of education therein ; that they should make annual report to the 
governor of the school population in the county; and should receive and dis- 
burse the county's quota of the educational fund. The State fund was to be 
distributed according to the number of free white persons between the ages of 
five and fifteen in each county ; and no part of said fund was to be used for any 
other purpose than in payment of teachers, and purchase of books and station- 
ery for children whose parents were unable to provide the same. The system 
was to be primarily for the benefit of scholars between the ages of five and fif- 
teen, but no person between fifteen and twenty-one was to be debarred. 

In 1839 there were signs of a disposition to return to the system in vogue 
prior to this act. In that year John McPherson Berrien, William W. Holt, and 
A. H. Chappell, commissioners, appointed under authority of a Legislative res- 
olution to inquire into the whole subject of the State finances, with a view to 
sustaining the " great interests of public education and internal improvement," 
made an exhaustive and valuable report. Of the academies they say, "the 
county academies have been heretofore liberally endowed, and, may, in the 
opinion of the undersigned be safely left hereafter to the management of their 
own trustees, without further appropriation than a distribution of the present 
academic fund, in such proportions as may be just. For this intermediary class 
of schools this provision is deemed adequate, as experience has proved that 
they are capable of self support, and that those of a private foundation are or- 
dinarily most successful." 

They next consider the common or poor schools, which they say they con- 
sider more important than either the university or the academies. They 
say that "hitherto the State has not only been without any system of common 
schools, but has actually neglected to provide adequate means for their sup- 
port, should a system be devised suitable to our condition It is true this mat- 
ter has not been entirely neglected, but the inadequacy of the provision has in 
effect rendered all our efforts in this way inefficient." They state that the treas- 
ury reports show that for the five preceding years, the annual average poor 
school fund has been but $17,418; and the academical fund $19,352, and that 
the total ^'^G.y'jo is not more than half enough for poor schools alone. They 
find that there were then about 75,000 male citizens of Georgia over twenty- 
one and under sixty years of age, and recommend that a poll tax of $1 be im- 
posed, to be devoted exclusively to poor schools. They further report that they 
called upon the treasurer for information as to the disbursements since 181 5, or 
for a quarter of a century past, for academies and common schools, and give 
the answer received, which we here tabulate. The records appear not to ex- 
tend back of 1823. 



312 



History of Augusta. 





Academies. 


Poor Schools. Total. 


1823 


$ 3,306 80 
18.502 01 
I 1 ,004 1 2 
11,502 75 
9,205 28 
4,095 30 
14,302 44 
19,296 01 
20,156 54 
19,177 68 
21,812 95 
18,710 27 
16,657 20 
18,308 60 
22,823 88 
20,260 21 


$ ' $ 3,306 80 


1824 

1825 

1826 


I 18,502 01 

12,409 63 23,413 75 
17,706 30 29,209 05 


1827 


8,493 48 17.698 76 


1828 


7,724 74 1 1,820 04 


1829 


7,425 58 21.728 02 


1830 

1831 

1832 

1833 


29,998 15 
24,570 46 
19,298 44 
22,380 57 
18,401 18 


49,294 16 
44.727 00 
38,476 12 
44,193 52 


1834 


•^7.111 4.1; 


1835 


16,560 49 ^^.217 6q 


1836 

18^7 


15,892 01 

17,711 32 

18,525 44 


34,200 61 
40,535 20 


1838... 


38,785 65 




1249,122 04 


$237,097 79 


$486,219 83 



In the next year, 1840, tlie system of common schools as established by 
act of 1837, was abolished, the poor school system was revived, and the com- 
mon school fund was made a poor school fund. Five commissioners were di- 
rected to be appointed in each county by the justices of the Inferior Court to 
disburse the fund for the benefit of children " between the ages of six and fifteen 
years, whose indigence, in tiie opinion of tlie justices, entitle them to a partici- 
pation in the poor school fund." Such children might be taught in the acade- 
mies, in which event the teacher was entitled to receive poor school rates for 
their tuition. The educational system then stood as before, to wit: academies 
for pay, and poor schools for indigent, pupils. 

In 1842 Governor McDonald informed the Legislature that " the efforts 
heretofore made to confer the benefits of education upon all through the instru- 
mentality of common and poor schools, have not been attended with the suc- 
cess that was hoped for," adding that "so small is the sum now subject to dis- 
tribution, that if it were equally divided among the children entitled to it under 
the law, and it should be distributed in no other manner, it would not be suffi- 
cient to purchase the books and stationery necessary for their use. At the 
last apportionment, the sum of seventy cents only was assigned to each child, 
and there must be even a further reduction at the next." It was the opinion 
of his excellency that the State should support and educate, at some central 
point, a select number of poor pupils who should bind themselves in return to 
teach gratuitously for a certain period in the counties whence they came, those 
counties to board and clothe them while so doing, a plan which went no fur- 
ther than the executive recommendation. 

In 1843 was passed "an act to provide for the education of the poor," 
which empowered the justices of the Inferior Court to levy a tax for that pur- 
pose when recommended by the grand jury. In addition to this resource 1733 
shares of the capital stock of the Bank of the State of Georgia, 890 shares of 



Educational. 313 



Bank of Augusta stock, and all the net assets of the Central Bank were set 
aside as a permanent educational fund, the interest whereof was to go to the 
support of poor schools. The justices of the Inferior Court were to have the 
general matter of poor schools in charge, and to provide for poor children be- 
tween the ages of eight and sixteen whose parents were unable to educate 
them. By a subsequent act the school age was changed to from six to six- 
teen. 

For a quarter of a century from this date the old system of academies and 
poor schools remained substantially as the acts of 1840 and 1843 left it, but 
some vigorous efforts were made to improve the poor school fund. 

By act of 1852 the dividends on 1833 shares of State Bank stock, 890 
shares of Bank of Augusta stock, and 186 shares of Georgia Railroad and 
Banking Company stock, all belonging to the State, were set apart " as a per- 
manent fund for the education of the poor." This fund was to be increased 
by as many additional shares of the stock of either of said banks as could be 
purchased with the unexpended appropriation of $30,000 for the State conven- 
tion of 1850, and the net assets of the Central Bank. This fund was to be ap- 
portioned among such counties as should by the first of December in each year 
certify to the State Treasury the number of children between the ages of eight 
and sixteen years therein, as were unable "from the poverty of themselves or 
parents, to procure a plain English education without public assistance." 

In 1858 this fund was supplemented by the sum of $100,000 annually from 
the revenue of the Western and Atlantic, or State, railroad, and any annual 
unexpended balance in the treasury after defraying all expenses of the State 
government. It was also provided that as fast as the then existing State debt 
should be paid off six per cent, educational bonds should be issued, the interest 
to go to same fund. At that time tlie State debt was $2,627,000, so that an 
ultimate addition of $157,620 was contemplated The same act changed the 
school age to from eight to eighteen. 

In 1859 the school age was changed to from six to eighteen, and it was pro- 
vided that the elementary branches should alone be taught, the same being de- 
fined as spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic, though English grammar and 
geography might be pursued if the cost was not thereby increased. 

The necessity of increased appropriations had become so manifest as to 
force the above stated action. The number of scholars was rapidly increasing, 
and the fund became ridiculously small. In 1848 there were 23,106 poor chil- 
dren, and the fund was $19,278.15. In 1853 there were 38,000 children, and 
but $23,000 wherewith to educate them, or sixty cents apiece. The effect of 
the measures of 1852 and 1858 we will trace hereafter; suffice it here to say 
that the number of poor schools and poor scholars increased. 

The academies also seemed to prosper. We have seen that in 1828 there 
were some eighty in operation, and each year th ^ general assembly incorpo- 



314 History of Augusta. 



rated new ones. Some ninety- seven had been organized u[) to 1832, and from 
that time the number rapidly increased. From 1832 to 1850 one hundred 
and seventy-two were incorporated, and from 1 850 to i860 forty-nine more. 
The Hst of their names is curious reading, bibhcal, classical, patriotic, Indian, 
local, and nondescript cognomens abounding. Among them we may mention 
Leonicera, Byron, Jackson, Jefferson, Madison, Washington, Wellington, La- 
Fayette, Cicero, Ebenezer, Sugar Maple, Pond Town, Hickory Flat, Liberty 
Plains. Vineland, Warrior, Bethel, Ikickeye, Mount Carmel, Mount Bethel, 
Mount Enon, Mount Horeb, Mount Gilead. Mount Zion, Hebron, Goshen, 
Zebulon, Buena Vista, Keg Creek, Rum Creek, Traveler's Rest, Malmaison, 
Villanovv, Toweliga, Etowah, Attapulgas, Phidelta, Halloca, Rehoboth, Reh- 
obothville. Pond Town, Sardis, Snake Creek, liudisco, and Philomathia Aca- 
demies. One is called Columbia, and not to be outdone, another is incorpo- 
rated as Columbiana Academy; another is originally incorporated as the Farm- 
er's Academy, and then, with an affectation of elegance, procures the General 
Assembly to re-baptise it as the Planter's Academy. Still another is the Con- 
stitutional Hall Academy, and one is Dried Indian Mountain Academy ! 

The fact is, that with the exception of the well endowed Richmond Acad- 
emy in Augusta, and possibly some few others, these academies were little 
more than " the old field school," so well remembered by the elder generation. 
Probably a fair account of them as they existed for many years in most parts 
of the State, may be found in Judge Longstreet's sketch, " The Turn Out," in 
Georgia Scenes. The story turns upon a school-boy custom of taking posses- 
sion of the school- house, and barring or turning the teacher out until he agreed 
to give them a holiday. It was Easter, and the urchins, having boiled and 
colored in all tlie hues of the rainbow an immense number of eggs, were anx- 
ious for a day or so in which to " peck," them, that is, knock point against 
point, the boy whose egg broke in the encounter forfeiting the same to his an- 
tagonist. The teacher was generally quite willing to grant the holiday, but, 
for form's sake, and not to displease his patrons, would make a stout prelimin- 
ary resistance. On this occasion, the boys had strongly entrenched them- 
selves, and our author thus describes the academy they had converted into a 
citadel : " It was a simple log-pen, about twenty feet square, with a doorway 
cut out of the logs, to which was fitted a rude door, made of clapboards, and 
swung on wooden hinges. The roof was covered with clapboards, also, and re- 
tained in their places by heavy logs placed on them. The chimney was built 
of logs diminishing in size from the ground to the top, and overspread inside 
and out with red clay mortar." Over the door of this seat of learning was a 
board bearing the word " academy." Our author then depicts the arrival of 
the enemy before the fortress. Though previously apprised of what was going 
on, the pedagogue gave signs of great astonishment and indignation, when he 
advanced to the door, and was assailed by a whole platoon of sticks from the 



Educational. 3 1 5 



cracks. He sternly demanded admittance. " Give us holyday," said twenty 
little urchins within, "and we'll let you in." 

" Open the door of the Academy,'' (he would allow no one to call it a school- 
house.) " Open the door of the academy this instant," said he, " or I'll break 
it down." 

"Break it down," said Pete Jones and Bill Smith, the big boys of the school, 
"and we'll break you down." 

A terrific encounter ensues, but the pedagogue is repulsed. Then he seeks 
to work on the fears of the garrison by hunting up their stores of eggs, hid- 
den in stumps and other recesses about, but the boys are proof against the 
menace. He then batters down the door ; the boys swarm all over him, and 
peace is finally made by conceding the holyday. 

In i860 the laws of Georgia were ordered to be digested into a code. The 
commissioners appointed to perform this work took upon themselves a consid- 
erable power of legislation, justifying the same upon their interpretation of the 
authority confided in them as meaning that they were " not only to condense 
and arrange the verbose and somewhat chaotic mass of the statutes of Georgia, 
but also to interweave therewith those great leading principles of jurisprudence 
necessary to fill out and make perfect the body of our laws, of which the stat- 
utes constitute but disjointed parts." Acting under this very liberal construc- 
tion, they did considerable "interweaving" in the matter of education, as on 
other topics committed to their care, and, in fact presented a general educa- 
tional code, which, while retaining the main features of the old system, con- 
tained a number of new principles. The Legislature subsequently adopting 
the code as a whole, what is therein written may be taken as embodying the 
educational system of the State at the time of such adoption, and until some 
ten years later a new one was devised. The substance of the codified system 
is as follows : 

The university was shorn of its supervisory power over the academies and 
poor schools, and the academies and poor schools were kept distinct as they 
had been before. Tlie justices of the Inferior Courts in the several counties 
were vested with power, upon the application in writing, of any body of citi- 
zens not less than three nor more than thirteen, to incorporate them as an 
academy, institute, or school, the powers granted to be distinctly specified, 
recorded on the minutes of the court, and published three times in some pub- 
lic gazette. The justices were also given authority to appoint trustees for any 
county academy, whether incorporated or not, and to any number by them 
deemed expedient, and to fill vacancies therein. The authority of the trustees, 
unless specially restricted by statute, was to elect teachers, fix their salaries 
and terms of office, prescribe the course of studies, manage the finances, and 
adopt such rules and regulations for the government of their respective insti- 
tutions, as they might see fit. 



3i6 History of Augusta. 



The poor schools, or common schools, as they were now called, were to be 
supported out of the educational fund of the State, which fund was made up as 
follows : First, the dividends upon the stock owned by the State in the Bank 
of the State of Georgia, the Bank of Augusta, and tlie Georgia Railroad and 
Banking Company. At this time the State owned 1833 shares of the stock of 
the Bank of the State of Georgia, 890 shares of Bank of Augusta stock; and 186 
shares of Georgia Railroad stock ; second, one hundred thousand dollars an- 
nually from the net earnings of the Western and Atlantic, or State, Railroad, 
in addition to this, as fast as any of the then existing State debt was paid out 
of the earnings of that road, the treasurer was to issue six per cent, education 
bonds to that amount, the interest thereof to go to the educational fund ; 
third, any undrawn balances of the $100,000; fourth, any balance in treasury 
after defraying all expenses of the State government; and fifth, any donations 
by will, deed, or otherwise, for educational purposes. 

This fund was pro- rated among the several counties as follows : by the third 
Monday in November of each year, the ordinary was to report to the gover- 
nor "the whole number of children in his county, as ascertained from the tax 
receiver's digest, his own knowledge, and the knowledge of the grand jury," it 
being provided that the ordinary should submit the list as made up by him 
from his own knowledge and the tax books to the grand jury, to be corrected 
by them, if necessary. On receiving these reports, the governor was to pro- 
rate the fund among the counties reporting, any county not reporting at the 
appointed time to lose its share in the fund, and draw his warrant in favor of 
the treasurer of the county school board. The educational fund of the county 
was thus made up : 

1. The county's quota of the State educational fund. 

2. Proceeds of county tax levied for educational purposes. 

3. Proceeds of sales of escheated property. 

4. Money arising from fines and forfeiture, after deducting charges thereon, 
and amounts recovered on qui tarn actions, where half or all was to go to the 
State or county. 

The justices of the Inferior Court had authority to levy such tax for educa- 
tional purposes, as the grand jury of the county might recommend. Should 
there be no such recommendation, the justices were empowered to levy a tax 
of not exceeding twenty-five per cent, on the rate of the State tax. 

The county educational board consisted of the justices of the Inferior Court, 
the ordinary, and one citizen selected by the judge of the Superior Court; and 
had power "to disburse the school fund in their respective counties in the man- 
ner that, in their judgment, will best promote the cause of general education 
under the law"; to examine all teachers who participate in the school funds 
upon the elementary branches, and also upon English grammar and geogra- 
phy, if the teacher applying shall desire, and to give said teacher the proper 



Educational. 317 



certificates of their qualification; to publish annually the school system adopted, 
rates of tuition, receipts and expenditures, itemized ; and to meet at least once 
a month. 

It was not compulsory upon the board to establish common schools, but it 
was to do so when the educational fund of the county and the state of the pop- 
ulation warranted the same in their judgement. 

All children between the ages of six and eighteen were entitled to attend 
the common schools, '" but children of parents who are unable to educate them, 
children discarded by their parents, and indigent orphan children, must first be 
provided for." 

These special beneficiaries were to be ascertained as follows : Each parent 
was, in making his tax returns, to state, under oath, the number of his chil- 
dren, or children under his charge, between the ages of six and eighteen ; the 
ordinary was to select from the tax books the names of those who, from pov- 
erty of parent, or otherwise, had not the means of education, adding any un- 
returned cases to his knowledge ; and the grand jury was to add any such 
cases in their knowledge. Moreover, any citizen might report to the board of 
education the names of any poor children omitted from the list. 

The course of instruction was to be only the elementary branches, the law 
stating that "by the term elementary branches is meant spelling, reading, writ- 
ing, and arithmetic," but in no event was the expense to exceed sixteen dol- 
lars per scholar per annum. By special permission scholars might study Eng- 
lish grammar and geography, or any other study, always provided the above 
cost was not exceeded. 

After the act of 1858, assisting that of 1852, had provided a fairly compe- 
tent fund for the poor schools, the returns of the number of children of school 
age show a marked increase. Probably the county authorities had been for 
years derelict in this respect because deeming the report a mere idle form. 
The returns for 1854 showed 42,467 poor children, and the fund that year was 
but $23,388, or not quite 53 cents per htad. In 1858 the fund was $29,569, 
and the largest amount going to any one county was $761 ; two receiving only 
$42. In 1859 the educational fund paid out was $150,163; the number of 
children between eight and eighteen, as ascertained by a State census that year 
taken, was 129,440. It must be understood, however, that this is the sum total 
of all the children, not the indigent only. For i860 the number of children 
between six and eighteen years of age was 159,341, and the eilucational fund 
disbursed to the counties was $150,000. 

The outbreak of the war prevented this system from having a fair trial, 
but there is reason to think that, between the academies and the poor schools, 
education was made pretty general. It will be seen, however, from the review 
which has been given, that, up to 1858, the county academies were the main 
educational resource, and that children whose parents were unable to send them 



3i8 History of Augusta. 



to the academy were dependent for instruction on the poor schools. How 
meaner that resource was has been shown. Riclimond county shared in the 
general famine. Its report for 1828 was as follows : "Richmond county, num- 
ber of scholars, male 22, female 17, total 39. No report of funds received or 
expended ; several school bills presented, but for want of funds could not be 
liquidated." For 1830 the report was: "Number of children returned between 
the ages of three and twenty is 177, males 94, females 83, of whom 104 are 
attending school ; amount received $636.75, disbursed $283.78." What sort 
of school must have been kept for 104 children on $283.78? 

For 1 83 I the poor schools o( Richmond received $343 30 from the State. 
In 1 83 I there were 135 poor scholars, and the fund was $451. In this year 
the trustee, George A. B. Walker, recommended the abolition of the system in 
that count}'. From the table heretofore given it will be seen that, for a num- 
ber of years following this date, the total poor school fund was about a con- 
stant quantity, from which we may infer that th(;re was no improvement in 
Richmond. 

This state of affairs animated some notable benefactions to the cause of free 
education by citizens of Augusta in bygone years. Prominent among them 
is the bequest of John W. Houghton, which still perpetuates his memor}' in the 
Houghton Institute, a flourishing seminary. Mr. Houghton was a native of 
Massachusetts, who settled in Augusta some si\t\' odd years ago. Shortly 
after his arrival he opened a store on Lower Broad street, and engaged in the 
shoe and leather trade. After years of close economy and strict attention to 
business he accumulated a fortune, and at his death left a sufficient amount 
for the erection of a brick building and the endowment of a school that should 
bear his name and " be free to all the children of Augusta." 

By a provision in his will the city council was made the custodian of this 
fund. In 1851 a large lot on Greene street, between Lincoln and Elbert, was 
selected as the site upon which to erect the new school-house, and during the 
following year a massive structure, well ventilated and comfortably furnished, 
was appropriately dedicated. Two teachers were elected by the city council — 
one for the male department, the other for the fen)ale — and the school opened 
under favorable auspices. For many years the number of pupils upon its rolls 
was rather limited, and the grade scarcely any liigher than that of an interme- 
diate school of the present day. After the war a new impetus was given under 
the leadership of Hon. M. V. Calvin, then principal of the institute, which caused 
many to patronize the school. 

In October, 1872, Mr. J. Cuthbert Shecut, a graduate of South Carolina 
University, was elected principal of the institute. He immediately reorgan- 
ized the school, and adopted the graded system of classes and departments, 
with results most beneficial to the pupils and most satisfactory to the com- 
munity. This system, with many improvements, stood the test of years, and 
is still in successful operation at the institute. 




\yioM: V. QxLu. 



Educational. 319 



The institute is divided into two schools, male and female, under the super- 
vision of one head — the principal. Each school consists of four departments, 
viz.: Primary, intermediate, grammar and iiigh school. In each of the primary- 
departments there are three grades or divisions — the higher departments being 
divided into two grades. Each grade is again subdivided into classes, in ac- 
cordance with the rank of the department, and over the entire department a 
competent teacher presides. 

In the primary and intermediate departments, the elementary branches are 
taught in regular graduation. In the grammar departments the pupil is taught 
the higher branches in the English language, and begins the study of Latin. 
In this grade the attention of the learner is directed to an analysis of the ob- 
jects of his study. The high school is the scientific grade. In this depart- 
ment the student completes the following course of study : Rhetoric, English 
synonyms, Latin, French, algebra, geometry, physical geography, physics, 
astronomy, anatomy and physiology, and chemistry. The topics which the 
different studies present are illustrated by means of apparatus. 

At the close of each scholastic year examinations, oral and written, are 
held in the institute hall. Cards of promotion are given to all pupils who suc- 
cessfully pass their examination, and diplomas of graduation are presented to 
the successful competitors of the high school department. 

Thousands of young men and young women have received their education 
at the old Houghton. So popular has it become that the committee in charge 
have already decided to enlarge the building. From an humble origin the 
Houghton has become "a bright and shining light," and an inestimable bless- 
ing to the community. 

The institute is under the charge and control of the city council. The teach- 
ers are one male principal and such number of male and female assistants as 
council may determine, all elected annually, and receiving salaries fixed by 
council. 

The Augusta Free School is a venerable institution founded before 182 1, 
and still in useful operation. In that year Rev. William T. Brantley, Rev. Will- 
iam Moderwell, Augustus Moore, William J. Hobby, Ralph Ketchum, Samuel 
Hale, Hugh Nesbit, Joel Catlin, Abiel Camfield, Robert Raymond Reid, Car- 
los Tracy, John Campbell, and Thomas McDowell were incorporated as "The 
Augusta Free School Society." Mr. Richard Tubman and others were gene- 
rous benefactors of this school. Mr. Thomas Snowden, one of the most suc- 
cessful instructors ever known in Augusta, was for a long time principal, and at 
one time Hon. Martin V. Calvin occupied the same position. The school is 
now used for primary instruction, and is not incorporated with the general pub- 
lic school system. 

Of the Richmond Academy we have elsewhere in this work spoken at 
length, and need here only say that this is the oldest incorporated institution 



320 History of Augusta. 



of learning in Georgia — with two exceptions, in Virginia, the oldest in the 
Southern States. The College of Charleston, next in order of time, is less ven- 
erable by several years. Both were founded under the same impulse, and to 
meet the same social exigencies, — the education of the youth of the State at 
home. 

No school of learning has been more intimately connected with all the in- 
terests of the community in which it has been established. By its charter its 
trustees were ex-officio commissioners of the town ; and, indeed, the general 
supervision of the interests of the town continued until the incorporation of 
the city in 1798. From 1780 to 1786, while Savannah (the seat of State gov- 
ernment) was occupied by the enemy, Augusta was declared the temporary 
capital of the State, and there being no public buildings in Augusta suitable 
for the purpose, those of the academy were used as the State House, and the 
State and Federal Courts were held there. The academy then occupied its old 
site on Bay street, just below the residence of Josiah Sibley, esq. There, in 
1 79 1, President Washington attended the commencement exercises of the 
academy and the ball given to his honor by the citizens. The board of trustees 
have most faithfully and continuously carried forward the trust confided to them 
— to establish "a seminary of learnin<j; for the education of our youth." 

The course of study includes besides the Latin. Greek, French, German and 
English languages, a thorough mathematical course from arithmetic to calcu- 
lus, a popular course of natural philosophy, theoretical and analytical chemis- 
try, astronomy, geology, and also a course of physiology and hygiene. The 
present building was erected in 1802 at a cost of some $20,000. The school 
was opened in 1785, a Mr. William Rogers, of Maryland, being appointed 
"master of the academj'," with a salary of ^200, and the use of the master's 
house and garden. He had the assistance of one tutor and was required to 
teach the Latin, Greek, and English languages and the common practical 
branches of mathematics. The highest rate of tuition was ten dollars per 
quarter. The academy remained in successful operation till 1864, when it was 
converted into a hospital by the Confedcr.ite government. For a couple of 
years after the close of the war it was used by the United States troops as a 
barracks, but on January i, 1868, was reopened and has since been in success- 
ful operation. Its business affairs appear to have been carefully managed dur- 
ing its century of existence. In 1845 '^ ^^'^^ reported as having buildings, 
library and apparatus worth some $30,000, annuity from real estate of $16,- 
000, and some $12,000 in bank stock At present its income is sufficient to 
defray all expenses and add about $1,000 annually to the endowment fund. 

In 181 5 the trustees of the Richmond Academy were authorized "to estab 
lish a seminary of learning on the Sand Hills, near Augusta, to be held and 
considered as a branch of the Richmond Academy, and to be governed by such 
rules and regulations as govern the said institution." The Sand Hills, subse- 



Educational. 321 



quentlySummerville, Academy, was founded under this authority, and remained 
a part of the Richmond Academy until 1866, when it became a separate insti- 
tution. It may here be added, as a fact Httle known, that in 1854 an effort was 
made to change the name Richmond Academy to that of the Tubman College. 
In that year the Legislature passed an act to empower the trustees of the 
academy of Richmond county to change the name of that institution to the 
Tubman College, and authorizing them under that name to have all necessary 
corporate powers and to use the property then held or owned by them for the 
academy. The then trustees of the academy were made trustees of the college, 
and empowered to add other trustees, so that the total number should not ex- 
ceed fifteen, and all laws relative to the academy were made applicable to the 
college. The proposed change was not made. 

The Constitution of Georgia framed in 1 861, by the same convention which 
adopted the Ordinance of Secession, contained the following provision : "The 
General Assembly shall have power to appropriate money for the promotion 
of learning and science, and to provide for the education of the people." — Art. 
II., sec. 5, part 4. 

The constitution adopted in 1865 had this clause: "The General Assembly 
shall have power to appropriate money for the promotion of learning and sci- 
ence, and to provide for the education of the people, and shall provide for the 
early resumption of the regular exercises of the University of Georgia, by the 
adequate endowment of the same." — Art. II., sec. 5, part 3. 

Thanks to the industry of Peterson Thweatt, comptroller-general during the 
war, and one of the best officers ever holding this position, we have a pretty 
clear account of educational matters from i860 to 1865, and here tabulate the 
statistics of the comptroller's reports : 

Children 6 to t8. Education Fund Disbursed. 

i860 159.341 $150,000 

1862 156.848 147. 1 31 

1863 97.467 137.524 

1864 152,170 79.787 

In 1865 the State road was destroyed ; by that time, also, the banks were 
suspended, and the only source of educational revenue left was the interest on 
education bonds, $23,355. Even this fund existed only on paper. 

Well might Governor Jenkins, on the restoration of peace, inform the Leg- 
islature that among the other disasters of the war the sources of supply to the 
educational interests had been dried up. Before passing to i\\G post bellinn pe- 
riod we may here give some synopsis of the legislation and policy of the State 
in respect to the education of the colored race. The inhibition on the education 
of the slaves or free negroes dates from colonial days. In the year 177^* the 
Provincial Assembly passed an act, or rather a code of laws, relative to the col- 
ored population of the colony, and in this among a multitude of regulations, 
41 



322 History of Augusta. 



appears the following clause: "And whereas the having slaves taught to write, 
or suffering them to be employed in writing may be attended with great incon- 
venience: Be it therefore enacted that all and every person and persons what- 
soever, who shall hereafter teach, or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to 
write or read writing, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe in any man- 
ner of writing whatsoever, every such person and persons shall for every such 
offense, forfeit the sum of twenty pounds sterling." In 1829 it was enacted that 
"If any slave, negro or free person of color, or any white person, shall teach 
any other slave, negro, or free person of color to read or write either written or 
printed characters, the said free person of color or slave shall be punished by 
fine and whipping, or fine or whipping, at the discretion of the court ; and if a 
white person so offend, he, she, or they shall be punished with a fine not 
exceeding five hundred dollars, and imprisonment in the common jail at the 
discretion of the court before whom said offender is tried." 

In the same year, 1829, it was also enacted that "if any slave, negro, mesti- 
zo, or free person of color, or any other person, shall circulate, bring, or cause 
to be circulated or brought into this State, or aid or assist in any manner, or 
be instrumental in aiding or assisting in the circulation or bringing into this 
State, or in any manner concerned in any written or printed pamphlet, paper, 
or circular, for the purpose of exciting to insurrection, conspiracy, or resistance 
among the slaves, negroes or free persons of color of this State, against their 
owners or the citizens of this State, the said person or persons offending against 
this act shall be punished with death." 

In 1833 the penal laws of the State were codified, and in this code the 
foregoing provisions, as also one against the employment of colored persons in 
printing-offices, were incorporated as follows: "If any persion shall teach any 
slave, negro, or free person of color, to read or write either written or printed 
characters, or shall procure, suffer, or permit a slave, negro, or person of color 
to transact business for him in writing, such person so offending shall be guilty 
of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by fine or imprison- 
ment in the common jail of the county, or both, at the discretion of the court. 

"If any person, owning or having in his possession and under his control 
any printing press or types in this State, shall use or employ, or permit to be 
used or employed, any slave or free person of color in the setting up of types, 
or other labor about the office, requiring in said slave or free person of color a 
knowledge of reading or writing, such person so offending shall be guilty of a 
misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one 
hundred dollars. 

"If any person shall bring, introduce, or circulate, or cause to be brought, 
introduced or circulated, or aid, or assist, or be in any manner instrumental in 
bringing, introducing, or circulating within this State, any printed or written 
paper, pamphlet, or circular for the purpose of exciting insurrection, revolt, 



Educational. 323 



conspiracy, or resistance on the part of the slaves, negroes, or free persons of 
color in this State, against the citizens of this State, or any part of them, such 
person so offending shall be guilty of a high misdemeanor, and on conviction 
shall be punished with death." 

In 1 84 1 it was enacted that "if any shopkeeper, storekeeper, or any other 
person or persons whatsoever, shall sell to. barter, or in anywise furnish, or al- 
low to be furnished by any person in his, her, or their employment, any slave, 
negro, or free person of color, any printed or written book, pamphlet, or other 
written or printed publication, writing paper, ink, or other articles of station- 
ery for his, her, or their use, without written or verbal permission from the 
owner, guardian, or other person authorized, such person or persons so offend- 
ing shall, upon conviction thereof, pay a fine of not less than ten dollars nor 
more than fifty dollars, for the first offense, and upon conviction of a second 
offense, be subject to a fine and imprisonment in the common jail of the 
county at the discretion of the court, not to exceed sixty days imprisonment 
and five hundred dollars fine." 

In 1867, while not as yet fully rehabilitated, the State was reconstructed. 
The constitution adopted by the convention which met in Atlanta in 1868 pro- 
vided for a poll tax of one dollar annually on each poll to be used for educa- 
tional purposes exclusively. It further provided that the General Assembly at 
its first session after the adoption of the constitution should "provide a thor- 
ough system of general education, to be forever free to all children of the State, 
the expense of which shall be provided for by taxation or otherwise"; and that 
"the poll tax allowed by this constitution, any educational fund now belonging 
to this State — except the endowment of and debt due to the State University 
— or that may hereafter be obtained in any way, a special tax on shows and 
exhibitions, and on the sale of spirituous and malt liquors — which the general 
assembly is hereby authorized to assess — and the proceeds from the commu- 
tation for militia service, are hereby set apart and devoted to the support of 
common schools. And if the provision herein made shall at any time prove 
insufficient, the general assembly shall have power to levy such general tax 
upon the property of the State as may be necessary for the support of said 
school system. And there shall be established as soon as practicable, one or 
more common schools in each school district in this State." The constitution 
also provided that there should be a State school commissioner. In 1870 an 
act was passed to establish a system of public instruction, the main features of 
which were as follows: there was to be a State board of education, consisting of 
the governor, the attorney-general, the secretary of State, the comptroller- 
general, and the State school commissioner; there was also to be a county 
board of education made up of one member from each militia district, and one 
from each town or city ward, to be elected by the people and hold two years. 
The State educational fund was to be apportioned to the counties in proportion 



324 History of Augusta. 



to the number of persons between six and twenty-one years of age therein; 
the county boards were to institute schools and apportion and disburse the 
county's quota of the fund. The course of instruction was to be orthography, 
reading, writing, arithmetic, Engh'sh grammar, and geography. Provision was 
made for evening and ambulatory schools. 

Up to 1872 the public schools in Augusta were conducted under this act; 
but in that year a local law was passed which regulates public instruction in the 
city and county, one school board having entire charge thereof The details of 
this system are as follows : 

The board of education consists of thirty-seven members — three from each 
of the five city wards, five country districts, two incorporated villages and the 
ordinary of the county, c.v-ojficio. Members must be freeholders and residents 
of the county. The term of ofiice is three years, and an election occurs every 
November to fill the vacancies on the board, the term of one-third of the mem- 
bers expiring annually. The board meets regularly on the second Saturday of 
each month, and the president is chosen from among its members. The sec- 
retary, who is also the county school commissioner, is chosen annually at the 
meeting in January. 

The schools in each district and village in the county are under the entire 
control of the local trustees. The teachers are chosen by them, the length of 
the term is regulated by them, and all matters pertaining to the schools are re- 
ferred to them, under regulations of the board of education. In the city the 
schools are under the charge of the conference board of city trustees, which 
consists of all the members from the five wards. 

The finances of the board are under the control of the finance committee, 
which meets on Friday before the regular meeting of the board of education. 
They audit all accounts, examine all the books, and present the monthly ex- 
penses of all the schools to the board at each regular meeting. They are not 
authorized, however, to audit any account that is not approved by a majority 
of the local trustees of the ward or district wherein the expenditure is to be 
made, except the high school accounts, which are approved by the secretary. 

The school fund at the disposal of the board is annually divided, according 
to the school population, among the city wards, the five county districts and 
the two villages, after reserving a fund for the general expenses of the board 
and for the high schools. By this means each set of local trustees can see the 
amount at their disposal, and can regulate their schools accordingly. They 
can have few or many teachers, a long or short term, build and repair, just as 
they please and as their funds permit. Each district, village and the city wards 
run a separate set of schools, and yet the whole system is controlled by one 
board of education, and the actions of the various local trustees are under the 
supervision of suitable committees from the general board. 

The secretary and county school commissioner is in general charge of the 



Educational. 325 

whole. He is required to visit all schools, to examine and instruct the teach- 
ers, keep a record of the financial operations of the board, and in every way to 
promote the general interest of education in the county. 

The Tubman High School is for young ladies. Pupils are admitted to the 
school upon payment of a tuition fee of seven and a half dollars per term, in ad- 
vance, which is fifteen dollars for a school year. The principal examines all ap- 
plicants for seats, unless they bring promotion cards from the grammar schools. 
The course of study is well chosen, and all pupils desiring promotion or gradua- 
tion are subject to rigid examination at the close of each term. The young lady 
in the graduating class who receives the highest mark during the year is entitled 
to the Davidson medal. She is also entitled to a scholarship in the Wesleyan 
Female College, of Macon, Ga. The young lady who receives the second high- 
est mark is entitled to a scholarship at Lucy Cobb Institute. A scholarship for 
general excellence is also offered by the Millersburg College, in Kentucky. 
Regular diplomas are given to the graduating classes at the annual commence- 
ment exhibitions in June. 

The Colored High School is conducted in every regard as the Tubman High 
School, except that a fee of five dollars a term, in advance, or ten dollars for a 
school year, is demanded of the pupils. 

In the selection of teachers to fill the public schools everything being equal, 
preference is given to the graduates from the high schools of the county. 

The teachers in the high schools are chosen by the entire board of educa- 
tion. Those in the city schools are chosen by the conference board of city 
trustees, which consists of the members from the five wards. Those in the 
country districts are chosen by the local trustees of the district in which the 
school is situated. No person can be considered as an applicant for any public 
school, nor entitled to election as such, unless possessed of a certificate of qual- 
ification signed by the president and secretary. 

The method of securing the certificate of qualification is as follows: The ap- 
plicant must write an application for examination as teacher, have it endorsed 
as to good moral character by at least two persons of good standing, address 
it to the board of education, and place it in the hands of the secretary. 

The secretary reads the application to the board at the next regular meet- 
ing, and they order the examination to be held. At any convenient season the 
secretary examines the applicant upon reading, spelling, writing, geography, 
history, grammar and arithmetic, and upon other branches of study desired. 
The result of the examination is reported to the next meeting of the board, and 
according to the degree of proficiency in the studies the secretary recommends 
a certificate of the first, second and third grade to be granted, which is accord- 
ingly done. If the applicant is possessed of a diploma, this wmII entitle him, with- 
out examination, to a certificate of the first grade, though the application must 
be made as above. A certificate of the third grade entitles a teacher to teach 



326 History of Augusta. 



in the primary school only; of the second grade to teach in the intermediate 
school, and of the first grade to teach a grammar or high school. The first 
grade certificate is good for three years, the second grade for two years, and the 
third grade for one year. 

No child under six or over eighteen years of age is allowed to enter the pub- 
lic school system. Pupils are required to attend the school that is nearest to 
them, and in case of the districts in the country no pupil is allowed to attend a 
school that is in another district from the one in which he lives, except by mu- 
tual consent of the local trustees of both districts. 

If the patrons of any school become dissatisfied with the teacher, and do 
not desire to send their children, their remedy is not in sending them to other 
schools, but in presenting a written petition to the local trustees requesting the 
teacher to be displaced and some other one put instead, and support their pe- 
tition by proof of incompetency. 

In the admission of pupils to the schools upon the opening of any term the 
following rules are always complied with by the teachers : 

First. Pupils are admitted to the schools according to the priority of their 
application. Due regard is paid to the application of those pupils who reside 
in the ward in which the school is situated. In so far as possible, pupils are 
required to attend the schools in the wards of their residence. 

Second. Pupils holding promotion cards from any public school teacher are 
entitled to highest preference above pupils who hold no cards. Of these pupils 
those who are promoted in the same building are first enrolled. In all cases 
where pupils are not promoted they are allowed to retain their seats under their 
former teacher. 

Third. The rolls of all the schools are to be made up on the day that the 
school opens. Seats are not reserved for absent pupils. After a pupil has taken 
his seat he is required as soon as possible to provide himself with the necessary 
books, and failure to do this will vacate his position. So long as the pupil is 
studious and obedient, and attends to the laws of the school, he may retain his 
place, but the strictest regulations are enforced concerning the suspension and 
expulsion of pupils who neither study nor behave. Corporal punishment is 
allowed to be inflicted on boys only. There are no expenses connected with 
the schools, except that of janitors' fees, which amount to about seventy-five 
cents a year for each pupil. 

At the end of each term — that is in February and in June — pupils are re- 
quired to pass an examination, written or oral, of what they have been taught 
during the previous months. The questions are generally prepared by the su- 
perintendent, in conjunction with the teachers, and are exhaustive under each 
topic After the pupils have been e.xamined, each one is marked according to 
his answers in each study. From this his general average is formed, and from 
the general averages the average of the school can be found. All these marks 



Educational. 327 



and averages are put down in the appropriate reports and filed in the office of 
the superintendent. Thus the examinations are made matter of record from 
year to year. 

The schools are divided into primary, intermediate, grammar and high 
schools. The primary comprises three classes; the intermediate and grammar 
grades, two classes each ; and the hi^h schools, three classes ; each class cor- 
responding to one year. 

The scholastic year begins on the Monday nearest the middle of Septem- 
ber, and closes on. the last school day in June. The daily sessions are from 9 
A. M. to 2 P. M. Sixty schools are now in operation, seventeen in the city, eight 
white, and nine colored ; and forty three in the country, twenty-five white and 
eighteen colored, with a total enrollment of 6, 121 pupils, white 3,390, colored 
2.731. The whites are divided as follows: boys, 1,446, girls, 1,944; the col- 
ored: boys, 1,237, girls, 1,494 There are 105 teachers employed, their sala- 
aries ranging from $35 to $50 per month in the white schools, and from $20 to 
$40 in the colored. The fund for 1888 was $43,687.61. Prior to the institu- 
tion of this system Hon. John S. Davidson was president of the local board. 
Under the system the first president was John T. Shewmake, who was suc- 
ceeded by George R. Sibley, and he in turn by Mr. Davidson, who has been 
the presiding officer for the last ten years. The superintendents have been 
Martin V. Calvin, A. H. McLaws, Benjamin Neely, and Lawton B. Evans. The 
Richmond county school system claims to show by its records that it educates 
at less cost per capita than any system in the South. We here subjoin a tabu- 
lar statement of the number of teachers employed. 

Average daily attendance, school funds, and cost per scholar since 1877, 
when the statistics of the system were regularly kept: 

Year. Teachers. 

1877 81 

1878 79 

1879 82 

1880 82 

1881 99 

1882 104 

1883 120 

1 884 112 

1885 113 

1886 104 

1887 104 

1888 105 

The fund is made up of the county's proportion of the State educational 
fund, the poll tax collected in the county, the tuition fees as above stated, and 
the special school tax levied by the School Board. For the period above 



Average Daily 
Attendance. 


Fund. 


Cost per Scholar. 


2,169 


$28,751.24 


13.26 


2,150 


29,059.18 


13-52 


2,096 


29,369.06 


14.01 


2,061 


31. 1 12.00 


15.10 


1.974 


32,010.37 


16.22 


2,809 


33734-6I 


12.01 


2,880 


39.370.14 


13.67 


3,066 


49.650.75 


16.39 


3.i'9 


45.435-83 


14-57 


3.287 


45.9I5-78 


13-97 


3,212 


45.858.01 


14.28 


3.318 


52,576.20 


15.85 



328 History of Augusta. 



stated the receipts from these sources in round numbers are: school tax, $360,- 
000; State fund, $65,000; poll tax, $22,000; tuition, $17,000; total, $464,- 
000. 

The establishment of the public school system has done away with private 
educational establishments in Augusta with the exception of a business college 
conducted by Professor Osborne, and three Ca'holic institutions, namely: St. 
Patrick's Commercial Institute, conducted by a religious fraternity, and St. 
Mary's Academy, established in 1853, and the Sacred Heart Academy, estab- 
lished in 1876, both founded and conducted by "The Sisters of the Order of 
Our Lady of Mercy." 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

BANKS AND BANKING. 

Two Eras. 18 10 to 1865, and 1865 to Date — The Old Bank of Augusta— Its Incorporators 
— Voting on a Sliding Scale — Old Bank Rules— Death to Counterfeit its Notes — Germs of 
Bank Examinations — The Old Bank's Good Showings— A Surplus Fund a Novelty — Balance 
Sheet of 1835— List of Stockholders— Other Old Banks — First Savings Bank in 1827 — Its ex- 
penses I4. 55 per annum— The Old Augusta Savings Institution — Augusta Insurance and 
Banking Company Almost Ruined by the Fire of 1829 — President Bennoch's Tart Report to 
the Governor — Report of 1833 — List of Stockholders — Merchants' and Planters' Bank — Its 
Failure in 1833— Legislative Report Thereon— The Mechanics' Bank — Report for 1833 — List 
of Stockholders — The Union Bank —The City Bank — The Georgia Railroad given Banking 
Franchise — Its Capital Stock and Dividends, from 1836 to 1847 — Its Banking Business, from 
1847 to 1864 — Discounts, Deposits, and Circulation for Same Period — Early Banking — Bank- 
ing at Will — Prohibition of Change Bills — Suppression of Private Banking — Severe Penalties 
— No Notes Under Five Dollars — Forfeiture of Charter on Suspension of Specie Payments — 
Free Banking Law of 1838 — Analagous to National Bank Act — Land and Negroes a Basis of 
Issue — Panic of 1837 — Panic of 1857 — '' The War of the Banks" — Banking Capital in 1835, 
in 1838, in i860 — Dividends, 1829 to 1838 — Great Prosperity Just Before the War — Increase 
of $133,000,000 in Two Years — Wealth of Richmond County in i860 — Outside of Slaves $20,- 
oc)0,ocx) — War-Bonds, Specie Suspension — The Banks Exhaust Themselves Helping the Con- 
federacy — Banking During the War— Demise of the Old Banks — Banks Since the War — Na- 
tional Bank — National Exchange Bank — The State Banks — Renewal of Banking Franchise to 
the Georgia Railroad —Dividends, from 1836 to 1861, Under First Franchise — Dividends, 1861 
to 1 88 1 — The Commercial Bank — The Augusta Savings Institution — Planters Loan and Sav- 
ings Bank — Banks Chartered Since the War, but Not Organized — City Loan Association and 
Savings Bank — Mechanics' Savings Bank — City Loan and Savings Bank — Manufacturers' 
Bank — Citizens' Bank— City Bank — Savings Bank of Augusta — Name Changed to Bank of 
Augusta — Its Failure. 

THE history of banking in Augusta begins in 18 10, when the old Bank of 
Augusta was incorporated, and may be considered in two epochs; namely 
before, and since 1865. Prior to the war the system of State Banks prevailed 



Banks and Banking. 329 



since the war the National bank and State systems have both obtained. Up 
to 1838 there was no uniform banking law in Georgia, but in that year a gen- 
eral act providing for the incorporation of banking institutions was passed. In 
1837, and again in 1857, financial panics, prevalent thruui^hout the country, 
exerted their full influence in Augusta. At the outbreak of the war the banks 
of Augusta risked their all on the success of the Southern Confederacy, and at 
the end of the struggle went down in the common ruin. With the rehabilita 
tion of the State, banking revived, and, as has been stated, both National banks 
and State banks now carry on business in the city. The details of the history 
thus tersely outlined, let us now proceed to give. 

In 1810 there was passed "An act to incorporate the Bank of Augusta." 
From the language of this statute it appears that, for some time prior, there 
had been a bank in the city, the preamble of the act reading: "Whereas 
Thomas Gumming, president, and John Howard, Richard Tubman. John Mc- 
Kinne, James Gardner, Hugh Nesbit, David Reid. John Moore, John Campbell, 
John Willson, Anderson Watkins, John Carmichael, and Ferdinand Phinizy, 
directors of the said bank, have petitioned the Legislature that they, the said 
president and directors, and others, the stockholders of the said bank, may be 
incorporated under the name of the Bank of Augusta." The act then proceeds 
to incorporate petitioners by the name and style of " The president, directors, 
and company of the Bank of Augusta." and to declare that, by that name, they 
" shall be, and are hereby made, able and capa' Ic in l.iw to have, purchase, re- 
ceive, possess, enjoy, and retain to them and t'ucir successors lands, rents, tene- 
ments, hereditaments, goods, chattels, and effects of what kind, nature, or quality 
whatsoever, and the same to sell, grant, demise, alien, or dispose of, to sue and 
be sued, plead and be impleaded, answer and be answered, defend and be de- 
fended in courts of record, or any other place whatsoever ; and also to make, 
have, and use a common seal, and the same to break, alter and renew at their 
pleasure, and also to ordain, establish, and put in execution such by-laws, or- 
dinances, and regulations as shall seem necessary and convenient for the gov- 
ernment of the said corporation, not being contrary to the laws, or to the con- 
stitution of this State, or of the United States, or repugnant to the fundamental 
rules of this corporation ; and, generally, to do and execute all and singular 
such acts, matters, and things which to them it shall or may appertain to do ; 
subject, nevertheless, to the rules, regulations, restrictions, limitations, and pro- 
visions hereinafter prescribed and declared." 

The charter was to expire on May i, 1830, and thirteen directors were to 
be chosen annually on the first Monday in December. The method of selec- 
tion was quite curious. The number of votes to which each stockholder was 
to be entitled in the election of directors was fixed on a sliding scale, as fol- 
lows : " For one share, and not more than two shares, one vote ; for every two 
shares above two, and not exceeding ten, one vote; for every four shares above 



330 History Of Augusta. 



ten, and not exceeding tliirty, one vote; for every six shares above thirty, and 
not exceeding sixty, one vote ; for every eight shares above sixty, and not ex- 
ceeding one hundred, one vote; and for every ten shares above one hundred, 
one vote ; but no person, corporation, copartnership, or body pohtic, shall be 
entitled to more than thirty votes, and no share or shares shall confer a right 
of suffrage which shall not have been holden three calendar months previous 
to the day of election, and unless it be holden by the person in whose name it 
appears, absolutely and bona fide in his own right, or in that of his wife, and for 
his or her sole use and benefit, or as executor or administrator, or guardian, or 
in the right and use of some copartnership, corporation, or society, of which 
he or she may be a member, and not in trust for, or to the use of, any other 
person; any stockholder, being absent, may authorize, by power of attorney 
under seal, any other stockholder to vote for him, her, or them." 

Two weeks before the election of directors a full list of stockholders was to 
be made out and opened to the inspection of any stockholder desiring to see 
the same, " to the end that public information may be given to the parties con- 
cerned of their co-proprietors and stockholders ; and to prevent a division of 
shares, in order to obtain to the person or persons so dividing them an undue 
influence, the managers of elections for directors shall administer to every stock- 
holder offering to vote the following oath: 'You, A. B., do swear (or afifirm) 
that the stock you now represent, is bona fide your property, and that you are 
a citizen of the United States, and that no other person or persons is or are 
concerned therein ;' and to any person voting by proxy for a minor, or in right 
of or in trust for any other person entitled to vote, the following oath : ' You, 
A. B., do swear (or affirm) that the stock of C. D., whom you now represent, 
is, to the best of your knowledge and belief, the property of the said C. D., and 
that he is a citizen of the United States, and that no other person or persons 
is or are concerned therein ; ' and any stockholder refusing to take such oath 
or affirmation shall not be allowed to vote at any such election." 

At their first meeting the directors were to elect a president out of their 
number, and any vacancies in the board were to be filled by the other mem- 
bers. 

The following fundamental rules for the government of the bank were then 
enacted: ist. The capital stock was to be $300,000. in $100 shares, $50,000 
whereof was to be reserved until January i, 1812, for the State, should it see 
fit to subscribe ; in which event the governor, treasurer, and comptroller gen- 
eral were to have the right to select two of the directors. 

2d. By a majority vote of the stockholders, the stock was increaseable up 
to $600,000, one-sixth of any increase to be reserved for the State, and, if not 
taken by the next session of the Legislature after such increase, to be thrown 
open to the public, the State, if subscribing, to appoint another director. 

3d. None but a stockholder, being a citizen of the State of Georgia, shall 



Banks and Banking 331 



be eligible as a director, and no director of any other bank shall at the same 
time be a director of this bank ; any director ceasing to be a stockholder t(.i 
lose his seat at the board. 

4th. The board of directors had power to appoint a cashier and other offi- 
cers, fix their compensation, and make by laws by a majority vote. 

5th. The cashier was to give bond in sucli sum as the directors might re- 
quire, and he, the president, and all other officers of the board, were to take 
the following oath : 'I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will well and 
faithfully discharge the duties of president or cashier, or other officer (as the 
case may be), of the board of the Bank of Augusta,' which oath was to be sub- 
scribed and entered on the minutes. 

6th. Seven directors were to form a quorum, of whom the president was 
always to be one, except in case of sickness or necessary absence, when the 
board was to elect one of its members in his place. 

7th. The board by a majority vote could call a general meeting of stock- 
holders at any time, giving thirty days' notice in some newspaper in Augusta, 
Washington, Wilkes county, Milledgeville, and Savannah, and specifying there- 
in the object of the meeting. 

8th. In case of death, resignation, or removal of the president, the board 
was to fill the vacancy. 

9th. The directors were to prescribe how transfers of stock should be made. 

lOth. Bills obligatory and of credit, under the seal of the corporation, were 
assignable by endorsement; the bank bills or notes were to be signed by the 
president, countersigned by the principal cashier or treasurer, and negotiable 
by delivery. 

I ith. No transfer of stock was to be valid unless entered on the books of 
the company kept for that purpose. 

1 2th. The bank was only to hold such lands, tenements, and heredita- 
ments as were necessary for its accommodation in the transaction of its busi- 
ness, or had been mortgaged thereto, or conveyed it, or to some other in trust, 
to secure loans, or bought at judicial sales upon judgments in favor of the bank, 
or loans, and the directors were empowered to sell all property the bank might 
thus acquire. 

13th. The bank was not directly or indirectly to be concerned in commerce 
or insurance, or in the importation or exportation of goods, or the purchase or 
sale thereof, except where pledged to it as security. 

14th. All bills, bonds, notes, and contracts of the bank were to be signt d 
by the president, and countersigned by the cashier, or else to be not binding. 

15th. The total indebtedness of the bank, by bill, bond, note or othtrAise 
was never to exceed three tunes the amount of its capital. In case of this limit 
being exceeded the directors under whose administration the excess had taken 
place were individually liable ; but any director might relieve himself b\' dis- 



332 History of Augusta 



senting from the act or resolution authorizing such over-issue, having said dis- 
sent entered on the minutes at the time, and forthwith giving notice of the fact 
at a general meeting of stockholders, which any dissenting director might call. 
Tlie hank was also liable for the over issue. 

i6th. Dividends were to be paid semi-annually, and never to exceed the 
net profits. 

17th. No dividend was to be at the expense of the capital stock; and, if 
such were declared, the directors present at the declaring thereof were to be 
individually liable to the bank for the amount of the infringement, but any 
director might relieve himself by forthwith dissenting in writing on the minutes 
of the board. 

1 8th. The directors were to keep regular minutes; vote by yeas and nays 
at the demand of any two directors; and produce the minutes before each gen- 
eral meeting of stockholders 

19th. The charter was to endure till May i, 1830, but two- thirds of the 
capital stock might surrender the same prior thereto, on giving twelve months' 
notice in the newspapers of Augusta, Savannah, and Milledgeville. 

When an increase of stock had been voted, no person could subscribe for 
more than ten shares, until after the expiration of three months from date of 
increase. 

Lastly, the charter contained this terrific denunciation: "That any person 
or persons who shall print, sign, or pass, or be concerned in the printing, sign- 
ing, or passing any counterfeit note or notes, bill or bills, of the Bank of Au- 
gusta, knowing them to be such, or who shall alter, or be concerned in the alter- 
in"' of any genuine note or notes, bill or bills of the said bank, and shall be con- 
victed thereof, shall sufTer death." 

We have been thus particular in giving the details of the charter of the Bank 
of Augusta because it is in some sort the model on which subsequent charters 
were framed, and is in itself, in spite of some archaic features, a work evincing 
much financial ability. It is said that the curious provision as to the voting 
power of stock in elections for directors was borrowed from an old Scotch 
bank ; but, however this may be, the cautious restrictions and limitations 
thrown about the manner of the selection of directors, and the responsibility 
placed on those officials, evince experience and ability in the framers of the act. 

It will be seen that the original charter was to expire on May i, 1830; but, 
in 1826, it was extended to May i, 1850; and in 1845 again extended to May 
I, 1870. This latter period it never reached, going down in the storms of war, 
but its long, useful and honorable history we may here trace. 

In 1 8 20 the presidents of the Bank of the State of Georgia, the Bank of Da- 
rien, the Planters' Bank, and the Bank of Augusta were required to annually 
report to the governor a minute statement of the standing and management of 
their respective institutions for the twelve months immediately preceding the 



Banks and Banking. 333 



first Monday in October, "showing particularly the amount of specie in their 
vaults; the amount of debts due them, the amount of issues, and the amount 
of bills in circulation; the amount of deposits, and the highest amount due and 
owing by each of said banks." 

In 1823 Governor Clark in his annual message recommended that each 
bank in which the State owned stock be required to make semi-annual state- 
ments to the executive ; " the whole of their proceedings, giving the names of 
their debtors and the amount due by each, to be laid before the Legislature at 
their annual sessions." His excellency seems to have been no friend to banks; 
farther on in his message informing the Legislature that "the opinion even noM 
almost universally prevails that the pecuniary embarrassment of the citizens is 
greater in proportion as you approach the vicinity of a bank;" also, that "the 
time may arrive when those monied 'institutions' will throw the weight of their 
powerful but subtle influence into the scale of an aspiring faction, hostile to the 
true interests of the country, thus sapping the foundation of the representative 
system, by corrupting the purity of the elective franchise." 

So much of the message as related to the banks was referred to a joint com- 
mittee on banks, which reported that the reports made were not specific enough, 
and should exhibit " the amount of specie in their vaults and owned by said 
banks, the amount of issues in circulation, the amount of discounted paper due 
and running to maturity, designating the amount in suit, the amount consid- 
ered bad and the amount considered doubtful (with an exhibit of the names of 
the parties, makers and endorsers on such bad paper), and at what time such 
loans were made; a schedule and description of all real and personal property 
owned by said banks, and from whom purchased, the particular circumstances 
which induced the purchase of such property, its real value at the time of pur- 
chase, and its real value at time of report; " which exhibits were ordered to be 
made. At this time it is quite clear the Legislature was groping its way toward 
a system of bank examination. 

In 1824 a special committee of four, of which Judge William W. Holt, of Au- 
gusta, then a member of the house of representatives, was one, was appointed to 
inquire into the condition of the several banks in which the State was a stock- 
holder, and report to the next session. The text of this report we do not find, 
but it must have been favorable to the banks as the joint committee on banks 
says that on inspection of the exhibits made by the Bank of Augusta, and the 
other banks in which the State had stock, the report of the special committee 
is fully sustained, that "their condition is sound and all their affairs faithfully 
and ably conducted." 

In [829 the committee on banks report " that they find the affairs of the Bank 
of Augusta have been managed with great prudence and discretion, and fully 
merits the continuance of the public confidence." 

In 1830 the Legislative report gives quite an insight into the banking of 



334 History of Augusta. 



that clay. The joint committee on banks reporting; on the annual statement of 
the bank of Augusta says: "That on a careful examination of the exhibits, they 
find such evidence of the abihty with which the affairs of this bank have been 
conducted, and of its sound and stable condition, as fully to retain the high 
credit of the institution. The committee find on examination of the statement 
that the issues of the bank have been kept within the bounds of moderation, 
amounting to a sum less than double the amount of specie actually in the banks 
of the vault; that out of a sum of $890,575.38 of paper discounted, and due and 
running to maturity, only $10,000 is considered bad, and $16,000 doubtful. 
These facts speak highly in favor of the persons exercising the direction of the 
institution, and entitle them to the approbation of the Legislature and the com- 
munity. The surplus fund over and above the regular dividend amounts to the 
sum of $104,948.94, which is held for the purpose of reimbursing the stock- 
holders in the event of loss by bad debts or other accidents. This plan of hold- 
ing a large surplus fund to meet such exigencies, where the regular dividends, 
equal to legal interest, are paid, is highly to be commended, and your commit- 
tee therefore respectfuJly submit the following resolution : 

^'Resolved, That the abilty and fidelity with which the affairs of the Bank of 
Augusta have been conducted merit the approbation of the Legislature, and 
entitle the bank to the fullest confidence of the public": which was adopted. 

In 1 83 1 the legislative committee reported as to this bank as follows: "That, 
on a careful and minute examination of the exhibits they find such evidence of 
the ability with which the affairs of the bank have been conducted, and of its 
sound and stable condition, that notwithstanding the great depreciation in the 
real estate belonging to the institution of about $29,000, and in doubtful and 
bad debts to the amount of $24,000, yet your committee are of opinion that 
this bank is in a prosperous and flourishing condition, and that the ability and 
fidelity with which its affairs have been managed, meets the approbation of 
your committee, and as such is entitled to the entire confidence of the Legisla- 
ture and of the people of Georgia." 

In 1832 the legis'ative report is very complimentary. It s.iys that on con- 
sideration of the statement of Thomas Gumming, president of the bank, it finds 
the institution "in a very sound and flourishing condition ; but your commit- 
tee cannot refrain from giving the directors extra credit for the very able and 
satisfactory mnnner in which the affairs of the bank have been conducted and 
kept for the last twelve months. It seems the directors of the institution re- 
quire the officers to keep and make to the board a full monthly return of all its 
operations, which enables a person at a single glance to ascertain the exact 
condition of the bank at any month during the year, which is much plainer and 
more satisfactory to your committee than any bank reports w hich have here- 
tofore been made, which gives evidence of the distinguished ability and pru- 
dence with which it is managed, so as to entitle it to the renewed confidence of 
our fellow- citizens." 



Banks and Banking. 335 



The report of the condition of the Bank of Augusta in 1835, as shown by its 
statement of April 8, 1835, ''s of interest as giving a view of banking in the city 
at that early day. Mr. John Moore was then president, and A. Picquet. book- 
keeper, and the report shows as follows : 

Dr. 

To capital stock, 6.000 shares $ 600.000.00 

To notes in circulation ^55 5-,. g- 

To amounts clue other banks 185.86672 

To unclaimed dividends 2 064 00 

"^^ ^^p°sits ;;;;;;■ 244,484.05 

To amount due treasurer of the United States . 8 813 08 

'T^ ^"-"P^"^ '.'..*. 129.98078 

$1,937,882.26 

Cr. 

By discounts, running $ 900.363.14 

By discounts, going over 143.837.51 

By amounts due from other banks 282.264 00 

By amounts at Savannah agency 32 687 47 

By notes of State banks, good i43,'337.oo 

By notes of United States and foreign banks 10,915.00 

By gold at Charleston 4379376 

By specie of bank in vaults 335'230 33 

By real estate, including banking house 39,127.50 

By Georgia Railroad and Banking Company stock 600.00 

By incidental expenses e -26 5 ; 

XT * • • 1 • $1,937,882.26 

Notes in circulation $766,673.63 

Notes on hand 584.367.37 $1,351,041.00 

Notes of other banks 1 53,252 

At Savannah agency 32,687.47 

^.P^';'^ 379.024.09 564.963.56 

^^^'^^^^^e 39.1^-7.50 

^"''P'"^ 129,980.78 

The cashier, Mr. Robert F. Poe, reports the hst of stockholders, which we 
subjoin : 

^^"^^- No. of Shares. Amount Paid in. 

Central Bank of Georgia ,,000 $100,000 

Thomas Cumminar 



290 29,000 

^g 

Richard Tubman 



Mrs. Ann Cummin? 64 ^,400 



358 35.800 

John Campbell 266 26.600 

Hugh Nesbit 205 20,500 

John Gumming. Savannah 200 20,000 

Jno. P. King, gdn. B. Keating 200 

James Gardner. i5q 



20.000 
16,000 



Wm. H. Turpin 146 14.600 

James Fraser ,45 ,4 5^^ 



John Fox 



120 12,000 



336 



History of Augusta. 



Number of Shares. Amount paid in. 

Isaac H. Tuttle ... 115 11, 500 

John Potter 100 1 0,000 

John Bones, gdn. A. E. White 100 10,000 

Robert Campbell 100 io,ocx> 

A. Waterman 100 10,000 

James Wardlaw 92 9,200 

Wm. S. C. Allen 73 7,300 

John Bones, gdn. G. O. K. White ' . . 70 7,000 

Nicholas Delaigle 70 7,000 

John Carmichael 80 8,000 

John Moore 79 7,900 

Mrs. Mary Hill 61 6,100 

Mary Louisa Hill 61 6,100 

Benj. H. Warren 50 5,000 

Augusta Free School Society 50 5,000 

Ann E. Gumming 50 5,000 

Sarah W. Gumming 50 5,000 

S. G. Dortic 50 5,000 

Ghas. A. Harper & O. Waters, tr. A. E. Jackson. ...... 50 5,000 

George Jones 50 5,000 

Anderson Watkins 50 5,000 

Robert Walton, tr 50 5,000 

Wardens and Vestry of St. Paul's Ghurch 50 5,000 

Wm. Whitehead 50 5,000 

Jesse Mercer 71 7,100 

Fanny Moore 65 6,500 

R. A. Reid, gdn., M. A. Reid 40 4,000 

Robert F. Foe, tr 20 2,000 

Elizabeth Reid 37 3,7oo 

David McKinney 35 3.500 

Wm. Bones, Gharleston 30 3,000 

R. A. Reid, gdn., H. O. Reid 27 2,700 

Joseph Rivers 26 2,600 

Trustees Meeson Academy 25 2,500 

Robert A. Reid 22 2,200 

Sarah Adams 20. 2,000 

Isaac Bryan 48 4,800 

Wm. G. Bunce 20 2,000 

Wm. Gumming 20 2,000 

John Moore, South Garolina 20 2,000 

Nancy and Margaret Murray 20 2,000 

Thos. N. Hamilton 25 2,500 

Alex. Spencer 20 2,000 

Jane Telfair 20 2,000 

Trustees Burke Gounty Academy 20 2,000 

Hozea Webster 20 2,000 

Wm. B. M'Lavv. ... 17 1,700 

Ann E. Gumming, tr 25 2,500 

S. S. R. R. Jones 15 1,500 

Geo. M. Newton 15 1,500 



Banks and Banking. 



337 



James Shackleford 

Samuel Clarke, tr 

Robert Clarke 

John and Samuel Bones 

Sarah H. Haig^ 

Joel Martin 

Pleasant Stovall . 

David Wardlavv 

Mrs. Lucy Isaac 

James C. Longstreet 

Mrs. Isabella Bones 

James Harrison 

Francis Hamil 

M. Kinchley 

James and William Harper 

Thomas M'Graw, gdn 

S. M'Graw 

Alexander Martin 

\V. W. Montgomery, tr. J. S. Blair 

H. Fosbrook 

Joseph Henry Lumpkin 

William McCaw 

Robert McDonald 

President, directors and etc. of Augusta stock as pledged 
on loans. 



Number of Shares. 
15 



H 
14 
10 
10 
10 
10 
10 

9 
8 

7 
6 
6 
10 
5 
5 
2 

5 
5 
4 
3 
67 
5 

234 



6.000 



Amount paid in. 
1,500 
1,400 
1,400 
1,000 
1,000 
1,000 
1,000 
1,000 

900 

800 

700 

600 

600 
1,000 

500 

500 
500 
500 
400 
300 
6,700 
500 

23,400 
$600,000 



By the original act of incorporation the capital stock was fixed, as lias been 
stated, at $300,000; but in 1826 the Legislature in extending the charter to 
1 850 authorized an increase of capital to $600,000, which will account for above 
total. 

In 1 842 the Bank of Augusta was authorized on the sale of any real or per- 
sonal property held by it, to take payment in cash or in its own stock as it might 
prefer; also to take in pa\mcnt its shares Inpothecated for loans; also to re- 
duce the number of its directors to twelve, five to be a quorum, the State to 
have two and the stockholders tert directors. 

In 1845, the charter was extended to May 1, 1870, and the total amount 
of its indebtedness was required never to exceed double the amount of its 
capital, the original charter allowing three times. It was further provided that 
the individual property of stockholders should be bound for the ultimate re- 
demption of the bank bill.^ in proportion to the number of shares held, and 
that all transfers of stock six months prior to a failure of the bank should be 
void, and the private property of the transferring stockholder be liable as if no 
such transfer had been made. In 1847 this personal liability clause was re- 
pealed, and the old rule 15 of the charter restored, making the directors indi- 
vidually liable for over-issues, unless dissenting, as therein stated. The fur- 

43 



338 History of Augusta. 



ther history of this venerable bank we will consider in the t^cneral history of 
banking in Augusta. 

The other ante bcllinn banks of Augusta were the Augusta Savings Bank 
incorporated in 1827; the Augusta Insiu-ance and Banking Company, also in- 
corporated in 1827; the Merchants and Planters Bank also in 1827 ; the Me- 
chanics' Bank, in 1830; the Union Bank, originally incorporated in 1836 as 
the Bank of Brunswick ; the Peoples Savings Bank of Augusta, in 1851; the 
City Bank, in 1854; and the Augusta Savings Bank, in 1855. At the outbreak 
of the war there were in operation, the Bank of Augusta; the Augusta Insur- 
ance and Banking Company; the Mechanics' Bank; the Union Bank; and 
the City Bank of Augusta. The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, in- 
corporated in 1833 and a railroad company with bank adjunct, was also in 
operation at this time. 

"The Augusta Savings Bank was incorporated in 1827. The incorporators 
were John Campbell, Thomas Cumming, Samuel Hale, Isaac Henry, Timothy 
Edwards, Edward F. Campbell, James Eraser, William W. Montgomery, Jo- 
seph Wheeler, Anderson Watkins, Asaph Waterman, Augustus Moore, Henry 
Cumming, John Howard. William H. Turpin, John Course, Richard Tubman, 
John Phinizy, George Twigg.s, John Moore, and James Harper; and were to 
constitute "the Board of Appointment," which board was annually to choose 
a president and other officers of the board and seven managers, which mana- 
gers, were to elect from its own membership, a president of the bank, and 
were to appoint a secretary, treasurer, and other officers for the institution. 
No president or manager was to receive any compensation for his services. 
Deposits of not less than two dollars were to be received, and two weeks' 
notice required before withdrawal. Dividends were to be paid in June and 
December, "to be calculated only from the first day of January, April, July 
and October in each year, and not having relation to ihc time of deposits 
provided deposits shall be made at any intermediate period between those 
dates, nor shall interest be allowed for fractional parts of a month." No mana- 
ger or officer was to be allowed to borrow from the bank, nor was it to accept 
their endorsement or any security by them. In reporting on this institution, 
in 1832, the Legislative committee sa}^ : "This differs from ordinary banks; its 
object is essentially charitable and, with its benevolence it afTords to the im- 
provident practical lessons on economy; it holds out no invitation to the capi- 
talist or office hunter. The management of this institution reflects honor on 
its philanthropic directors; and, in confirmation of the disinterestedness with 
which it has been managed, it is shown that its expenses, from the commence- 
ment of its operations to the present time, nearly three years, amount to only 
$22.74." The charter of this bank was perpetual, but it does not appear to 
have done business for any considerable length of time, as we find that, in 
1852, Henry H. Cumming, Robert H. Gardner, jr., George Crump, Gary F. 



Banks and Banking. 339 



Parish, George M. Norton, J. II. Mann, Cliristopher C. Taliaferro, Robert F. 
Foe, Henry Moore, James Harper, John Foster, George Jackson, James Mil- 
ler, Artemas Gould, and John M. Adams were incorporated as " The People's 
Savings Bank, in the city of Augusta," with all the powers and privileges ot 
the original bank, the charter whereof was granted them. 

In 1856, the Legislature, after a preamble which states that "there exists 
a class of persons who, from their position and want of experience, are incapa- 
ble of investing and accumulating their small incomes and earnings, and it is 
desirable to encourage economical and provident habits in all classes, and more 
especially in the young, the laboring, and the dependent," incorporates Charles 
J. Jenkins, James Gardner, jr., A. A. Beall, J. B. Walker, W. A. Walton, Ben- 
jamin Conley, I. P. Garvin, T. W. Chichester, M. P. Stovall, D. H. Wilcox, E. 
B. Ward, W, W. Alexander, H. H. Hickman, and James Miller as "The Au- 
gusta Savings Institution." The capital stock was $30,000, increasable to 
$100,000, which stock was to be "a fund pledged for the security of deposits." 
"There shall be not less than twelve or more than fifteen stockholders, each 
stockholder shall have absolutely and invariably an equal interest in the insti- 
tution." The institution could i;sue certificates of deposit, but not notes or 
bills as a circulating medium. 

"The Augusta Insurance and Banking Company" was incorporated in 1827, 
the incorporators being Peter Bennoch, James Harper. John Bones, Charles 
Labuzan, Anderson Watkins, Edward J. Harden, W. W. Montgomery, Samuel 
Hale, and Abraham M. Woolsey. The capital stock was not to exceed $500,- 
000, in shares of $100 each. For the first twenty days after the opening of 
the books of subscription none but citizens of Georgia could subscribe, and no 
citizen for more than one hundred shares; after the expiration of that time, 
any citizen, or body corporate, of the State could subscribe, without limit. 
The company was authorized " to insure property and effects of every nature 
and description, against losses by fire and water, and all other accidents, dan- 
gers, and casualties for which insurance companies are usually established, or 
to buy or sell life annuities." Losses were made payable in six months after 
the happening thereof. If the claimant was compelled to institute suit, the 
trial was to be at the first term, and if the company failed to satisfy the judg- 
ment in ten days after rendition thereof, the charter was forfeitable. The com- 
pany was authorized to issue bills to the amount of its capital stock, when such 
issue was authorized by a vote of three- fifths of the stock. By amendatory 
act of 1831, the issue of bills might be doubL- the amount of the capital stock. 
The charter was granted for thirty )-eirs, or up to December 26, 1857. 

The Augusta Insurance and Banking Company had scarcely gotten under 
way when it was almost blotted out of exislcncc by the great fire which deso- 
lated Augusta in April, 1829. This conflagration reduced the greater part of 
the city lying south of Monument street to ashes, and the losses inflicted a 



340 History of Augusta. 



staggering blow on the new company. In 1830 the bank committee reported 
" that notwithstanding the institution has experienced immense losses, at va- 
rious times, by tliat destructive element, fire, in that city, yet its exhibit shows 
us an improved condition compared with the same peiiod of last >ear, and we 
think it has the ability from its present condition to redeem the amount it has 
in circulation, and will be able, in time, to fulfill its obligations to the citizens 
generally." 

In 1 83 I the committee reports *' that the promptitude with which it has 
settled its late uncommon losses entitles it to the highest praise." In 1832 it 
is reported "in a sound and flourishing eondition." 

In 1833 the president of this company, Mr. Peter Bennoch, made a report 
to the governor which is a curious and interesting document in more than one 
respect. The year before the Legislature had passed an act requiring the va- 
rious banks of the State to make certain detailed reports to the executive office 
annually, under penalty of not having their bills received at the State treasury. 
Like much of the legislation then, and we might as well add, since, this statute 
was rather cloudy in expression, and Mr. Bennoch in his report very freely airs 
the ill opinion he entertained of it. He says " the unintelligible ambiguities 
of the law in question have put at defiance a common sense construction of its 
provisions;" and again, "the presumption seems natural that, during the con- 
ception and maturity of the law, the respective departments of the government 
must have been under the influence of some extraordinary impressions in rc- 
gird to banking operations," He adJs : " Your E.xcellcncy will perceive in 
submitting the return now made, on the part of the directors and officers of 
this institution, an earnest desire to comply with the letter and spirit of the 
law; should they have failed, you will please to impute it, not to intention, 
but to that dimness of legal vision which would enable the judge, only, to re- 
concile and harmonize what, to ordinary minds, must be hid in impenetrable 
obscurity." Having thus relieved his mind, Mr. Bennock submits his report, 
saying: " it will doubtless afford to the stockholders a gratification almost un- 
expected to contrast the present with the condition of the office three years 
since. Then its stock, from extraordinary losses, sold at half the amount paid 
in ; now it would command thirty per cent, premium." The statement shows 
as follows : 

Dr. 

To capital stock $125.00000 

To surplus 16.33831 

To bills in circulation 206,399 00 

To deposits 28, 1 86. 52 

To dividends unpaid 9S1.00 

$376,904.83 



Banks and Banking. 341 



Cr. 
By discounts 1,^0 5^,^^ 

By amounts due from other banks 130,256.14 

Byspt-cie 44,41921 

By bills of other banks 29.407 00 

By amounts due for premiums 2,31 9.97 



$376,904.83 



The president vvns Peter Bennoch ; the cashier, Robert Walton ; the list of 
stockholders was as follows : 

Name. No. Shares. Amount Paid On. 

A.L.Alexander 100 $ 2,500 

W. J. Bunce 50 1,250 

Peter Bennoch je ^yr 

J. D. Beers. I. R. St. John & Co 404 10, 1 00 

John Bones 25 625 

Estate of William Bones 25 625 

William Bryson 10 250 

Hays Bowdre 6c 1,625 

Samuel Clarke 200 5.000 

Estate of John Campbell 545 13.625 

Phillip Crump 10 250 

Thomas Cumming- 200 5.000 

Charles A. Crawford 45 , ,25 

Thomas G. Casey cq 1,250 

John C. Carmichael ^o 750 

Robert Campbell co i 250 

Edward Coxe 75 j g-- 

Nicholas Delaigle co 1,250 

William Dearing cq i 2 50 

John Fox joo 2,500 

James Eraser 210 5,250 

Alexander Graham oi 2 275 

William Glendenning 25 6'>z 

Samuel Hale cq i 250 

J. and W. Harper yj 2(^5- 

Estate of Arthur Harper 100 2,500 

Estate of J. Herbert 10 250 

Andrew Kerr 100 2,500 

Estate of E. Knight cq 1,250 

J^L. Kilburn ,55 3875 

Garret Laurens ^8 050 

G. M. Lavender 10 1,250 

William Harris 7c i 875 

Juriah Harris ic ,7, 

Thomas N. Hamilton cq 1,250 

John Moore joo 2^500 

Andrew J. Miller 755 i3 ,2^ 

W. W. Montgomery cq 1,250 

Henry Mealing 25 625 



342 



History of Augusta. 



No. Shares. Amount Paid On. 



Alexander McKenzie 

Estate of H. Nesl)itt loo 

Thomas J. I'armelee 

Samuel H. Peck 

Thomas J. Parmelee 

Samuel H Pfck 

Edward Quinn 



James Shannon loo 

Estate of Alexander Spencer 

St Andrew Society 

William H. Turpin 

Richard Tubman 

George O. White 

Anna E. White 

James Wai dlaw 

James McDowell 



30 


750 


ICO 


2,500 


80 


2,000 


50 


1,250 


80 


2,0C0 


50 


1,250 


50 


1,250 


100 


2,500 


50 


1,200 


10 


250 


100 


2,500 


150 


3.750 


25 


625 


75 


1,875 


25 


625 


10 


250 



Total shares $5,000 



$125,000 



In 1852 the charter of the Augusta Insurance and Banking Company was 
extended to January i, 1878; and for a number of years after this extension 
the company as we will see further on, continued to flourish. 

In 1827, the Merchants and Planters Bank was incorporated, Edward 
Thomas. Joseph Wheeler, and William Bostwick being appointed commis- 
sioners to secure subscriptions at Augusta for 1,1 50 shares; other commission- 
ers being appointed for like purpose at other points throughout the State, 
viz. : At Savannah, for 600 shares; W^ashington, Wilkes count}', for i 50 shares; 
Alliens, 50 shares; Lexington, 100 shares; Pelersbiirg, 100 shares; Greens- 
borough, 150 shares; Milledgeville, 150 shares; Macon, 100 shares; Waynes- 
boro, 50 shares; Louisville, 50 shares; and St. Mary's, 50 shares. The capi- 
tal stock was to be $300,000, in shares of $200 each, and the charter was to 
expire January i, 1858. It expired long before that. The bank began busi- 
ness in May, 1 828; and, for some years, received the commendation of the 
LeL;islati\-c examining committee. In 1830, it was reported "sound, and its 
credit unimpaired ; " in 1831 as " entirely sound;" in 1832 " in a sound and 
thriving condition." April 10, 1833, it suspended ; in December of that year 
the Legislature appointed Nathaniel W. C. Cocke, Henry Cook, and Robert 
Campbell, of Augusta, to co-operate with a joint committee of two from the 
Senate and three from the House, to cxam'nc into the circumstances of the 
failure. The report of this committee is curious reading. It first dilates on 
the obstructions placed in the way of a discharge of their duty: "The first 
obtacle presented to the efficient discharge of those duties was the unqualified 
refusal of the president and directors of said bank to submit their books and 
papers to the inspection of your committee. A formal protest under their 
order was presented, in which the investigation directed by the supreme legis- 



Banks axd Banking. 343 



lative authority of the State was denounced as 'a proceeding illegal, utterly 
subsersive of private right, and assumption of power which under the Constitu- 
tion, the Legislature cannot exercise.' This lofty tone of presumptuous defi- 
ance against the authority of the highest tribunal recognized by the Constitu- 
tion and the people of the State, adopted by this banking interest, a mere 
creature of the Legislature, and owing every moment of its existence to the 
forbearance of that body, seemed well to become the arrogance of an inflated 
aristocracy, more gratified at the possession of power to abuse, than respect to 
those whose interests are afifected by its exercise for the virtuous use of it, and 
placed in bold relief the shameless desperation which violated confidence, 
fraught with its excesses, was capable of assuming." The committee then 
proceeds to say that it overruled the protest, and ordered the president and 
directors to appear before them and to produce the books of the bank. In 
answer to this those officials replied that the books had been deposited in the 
bank, not to be removed except on an order of the board of directors ; and as 
there was now no such board they could not be produced by them, they be- 
ing now mere private individuals. This showing also was overruled, and the 
books ordered to be produced ; and, further, the recalcitiant officials were or- 
dered to show cause why they should not be attached for refusing to attend 
and testify in person, as ordered. On this, the recusants protested the whole 
investigation was illegal and unconstitutional, as before, and prayed the bene- 
fit of counsel to make their defense. At the prospect of a dozen lawyers be- 
ing let loose upon them, the committee somewhat receded from their high 
ground, saying, " to have done this would necessarily have consumed much 
time which was not to spare, as the committee was to report to the Legislature 
then in session." Accordingly the committee confined itself to an examina- 
tion of a large number of other witnesses, and reported their concluMons as 
follows: In the first place they say " the Merchants and Planters Bank never 
did have any legal existence whatever." By the charter, directors were not to 
be elected until gold and silver coin to the amount of twenty per cent, of the 
subscription had been received. No such payment had been made. Bank 
notes had been deposited in the State Bank, and certificates of deposit, as of 
specie, had been requested and received, these certificates being used in ord.>r 
to show the same to the governor as evidence that the bank had the amount of 
specie required for it to begin operations. In the next place the committee found 
that, whereas the charter required all discounts to be passed on by at least 
five, directors, it was a common practice for the president, or the president and 
cashier, or a less number of directors than five, to make discounts. Another 
violation of the charter was that non-stockholders were made directors. The 
causes of the bank's failure are then considered. It had no capital ; the stock 
was largely represented by the notes of stockholders; the bulk of discounts 
were made to the president and three directors. This quartette had half a 



344 History of Augusta. 



million of their paper in the bank ; all other debts due it were but $8o.OOO. 
Tlic committee say they cannot see how, with such a state of things existing, 
the credit of the bank stood so high. Its stock was 130. and its regular divi- 
dend eight per cent. In 1829 it reported a reserved fund and undivided pro- 
fits of $14,944 ; in 1830. of $27,668 ; in 1831, of $44,418; in 1832, of $23,- 
060; and within a few days of its failure, $418,803 debit and $659,981 credit, 
and yet its stock was then 66 per cent, below par. The committee finds that 
in April, 1833, the bank had $393,000 of its bills in circulation, in December 
of that year but $98,000. The difference, $205,000, had been passed out to 
the president and directors on their own notes ; they had gotten what they 
could for them ; and when the bills, came back the bank failed. Down went 
the bills, and the evidence was that those who had thus set them afloat at par, 
brought them in at 66 per cent, discount. The committee further report that 
a loan of $ioo,000 was offered this bank by the State Bank, if it would allow 
two disinterested and skillful persons to examine its affairs, and they should 
report it solvent, which was declined. The committee recommended that the 
bills of the Merchants' and Planters' Bank, should never be thereafter received 
at the State Treasury, and that the attorney-general be directed to proceed to 
forfeit the charter thereof, which was so ordered. 

The Mechanics' Bank was incorporated in 1830, the incorporators being 
John Phinizy. Amory Sibley, Ji'hn H. Mann, Moses Roff. jr., William W. Mont- 
gomer)', Alfred Cunmiing, Jesse Kent, George R. Roimtrte, and George L. 
Griggs. The capital stock was $200,000, increasable to $400,000, in shares of 
$100 each. Subscriptions were to be paid as follows: Two- per cent, cash at 
time of subscribing, eight percent, at the expiration of sixty days, ten percent, 
at the expiiation of sixty days more, and the balance at such limes thereafter 
as the directors may require. For non-payment, the shares, and all amounts 
paid thereon, were forfeitable to the bank. There were to be nine directors, 
and the instiution was to go into operation when twenty-one per cent, of sub- 
scriptions sliould have been p.^id in, in specie. Stockholdeis were to have one 
vote for each share, but no share was to be voted unless held bona fide for three 
months prior to the election by the person voting the same. Five directors 
were to be a quorum and every twenty stockholders owning two hundred 
shares could call a stockholders' meeting on sixty days' notice in thecit\' papers 
of Augusta specifying the objects of the meeting in the call. The bank was 
not to contract debts by bill or otherwise beyond three times the amount of its 
capital, and the stockholders were personally liable for such debts. The char- 
ter was to expire January i, i860, and *' the said bank shall be established at 
such place as may be determined on by the directors below W.ishington street 
in the said city of Augusta." The granite building erected b}' this bank still 
stands on the north side of Broad street a few doors east of Washington street. 
At the close of the war it was used as headquarters for the Federal post- com- 



Banks and Banking. 345 

mandant of Augusta, and after many mutations, is now a hospital for the ren- 
ovation of disabled cooking stoves — sic transit. 

In 1832 this bank was reported as manifesting "a prudent and cautious 
management." In 1833 it was reported "in a solvent condition and deserving 
confidence of the people." Its statement of April i, 1833, makes the following: 

Dr. 

To capital stock paid in $200,000.00 

To bills in circulation 194.439.00 

To reserve fund 8, 601. "2 

To deposits 18,429.31 

$421,469.63 

Cr. 

By specie in vaults $ 76,403.21 

By United States Bank notes 10,295.00 

By notes of other banks 20,977.00 

By amounts due from other banks 47,073.99 

By exchange 119,70084 

By discounts 122,003.96 

By discounts, protested and in suit 3,528.69 

By discounts, protested and not in suit 1 1,333.47 

By protest account i o 00 

By current expenses 2 277.08 

By banking house and lot 7,863 36 

$421,469.63 

By the next semi-annual report the debits and credits were $448,880.70. 
The specie was $42,172.54; issue, $206,363. The bank had been robbed of 
$5,428. Fielding Bradford was president, and George W. Lamar, cashier. 

The list of stockholders of the Mechanics' Bank in 1833 was as follows : 

Name. No. Shares. Amount Paid In. 

Richard Allen, Augusta 12 $ 1,200 

John M. Adams, Augusta 10 100 

Fielding Bradford, Augusta 160 16,000 

Edward Bustin, Augusta lo 1,000 

J. D. Beers, 1. R. St. John & Co., Augusta 35 3,500 

A. Gumming, Augusta 10 1,000 

R. Campbell, James Fraser and James Harper tr., estate 

Jno. Campbell, Augusta 390 39,000 

Thomas G. Casey, Augusta 36 3,600 

Samuel Clarke, Augusta 35 -i 500 

Jacob Dill, Augusta 5 coo 

John W. Downing, Philadelphia 40 4,000 

Major A. C. W. Fanning, New York 15 1,500 

John B. Guieu, Augusta 25 2,500 

James Hubbard, Augusta 10 1,000 

Samuel Hale, Augusta 20 2,000 

Juriah Harris, Columbia county, Ga 30 3.000 

44 



346 



History of Augusta. 



No. Sliaies. 

Isaac Henry, cashier, Augusta 120 

Marshall Keith, Columbia county, Ga 135 

G. B. Lamar, Savannah 32 

James Lampkin, Columbia county, Ga 10 

G. B. Marshall, Augusta 10 

William A. Mitchell, Augusta 55 

Elisha Martin 15 

Musgrove & Bustin, Augusta 1 50 

William H. Morgan & Co., Augusta no 

Robert McDonald, Augusta 10 

George M. Newton. Augusta 50 

M. E. Phinizy, Augusta 5 

A. P. Pillot, Augusta 50 

R. F. Poe, tr.. M. O. Longstreet, Augusta 25 

George H Paddock, Augusta 10 

Moses Ruff, jr., Augusta 20 

Lucy Smith, Abbeville, S. C 100 

Joel Smith, Abbeville, S. C 75 

John Smith, Laurens, S. C 60 

L S. Tuttle, Augusta 60 

E B. Webster, Augusta 50 



Amount Paid In. 
12.000 
13.500 

3.200 

1,000 

1,000 

5.500 

1,500 
15,000 

I T ,000 

1,000 

5,000 
500 

5,000 

2,500 

1,000 

2,000 
10,000 

7.500 

6,000 

6,000 

5,000 



$200,000 



In 1836 the Mechanics' Bank was authorized to increase its capital stock to 
$1,000,000, but in 1841 was empowered to reduce same to $500,000. 

In 1854 the charter of the bank was extended to January i, 1880, and the 
capital stock was authorized to be increased to $1,000,000. The bank was 
given a lien on the stock of any stockholder for debts due by him to the bank 
as principal, security, guarantee, drawer, acceptor, or endorser. The personal 
liability clause was re-enacted, and no transfer of stock within six months of 
failure of the bank should relieve a stockholder. 

The Union Bank was originally incorporated in 1836 as the Bank of Bruns- 
wick. The capital stock was $200,000, increaseable on the completion of the 
Brunswick and Altamaha Canal, to $i,coo,ooo, and on the completion of the 
Brunswick and Florida Railroad from Brunswick to the Apalachicola River, to 
$3,000,000. The voting power of stock was regulated something after the 
fashion of the Bank of Augusta, viz.: For one share, one vote; for two shares, 
and not exceeding five, two votes ; and for every five shares above five, one 
vote ; but no person, or body corporate, was to have more than thirty votes, 
and no stock could be voted which had been transferred three months prior to 
the election. The subscriptions were to be in specie, and the bills of the bank, 
the issue of which was not to exceed three times the amount of the paid in 
capital, were to be paid on demand in specie under penalty of forfeiture of 
charter. The personal liability clause was inserted, and it was provided "that 
the United States Bank, now located in Pennsylvania, shall hold no stock in 
said company." 



Banks and Banking. 



347 



In 1842 the Bank of Brunswick was authorized to remove to Augusta and 
there exercise all the privileges of its charter, save that the capital was not to 
be increased beyond its then present amount, $200,000. 

In 1850 this restriction was removed, and it was provided that the stock 
might be increased to $500,000, and that each stockholder should have one 
vote for each share by him held. 

In 1854 the name was authorized to be changed from the Bank of Bruns- 
wick to the Union Bank, the charter otherwise to remain the same, save that 
the personal liability clause was amended so as to continue such liability on 
holders of the stock tiansferred within six months of a failure of the bank. 

The Peoples' Saving Bank, incorporated in 1852, has already been men- 
tioned. 

The next bank incorporated in Augusta was the City Bank, chartered in 
1854. The incorporators were Ignatius P. Garvin, Henry C. Seymour, Ben- 
jamin Conley, Wiiliam H. Stark, and Charles S. Baker. The capital stock was 
$200,000, increaseable to $500,000. The charter was to expire January i, 
1880; there were to be five directors; each share of stock was to have one vote; 
the debts were never to exceed three times the amount of the capital paid in, 
and no bills were to be issued until $50,000 had been bona fide paid in in specie. 
The directors were personally liable for the whole of any over issue, and the 
stockholders liable in proportion to their shares. 

The Georgia Railroad and Banking Company was originally incorporated in 
1833 as the Georgia Railroad Company for the purpose of a railroad communi- 
cation between the city of Augusta and some point in the interior of the State 
to be agreed upon by the stockholders, with branch roads to Athens, Eatonton, 
and Madison. In this charter it was provided that " it shall be lawful for the 
company from time to time to invest so much, or such parts of their capital, or 
of their profils as may not be required for immediate use, and until it may be 
so required, in public stock of the United States, or of this State, or any incor- 
porated bank, or lend the same out at interest on good security, and draw and 
apply the dividends, and when, and as they shall see fit, sell and transfer any 
parts or portion thereof, provided that nothing herein contained shall be so con- 
strued as to authorize said company to issue bills of credit or to loan out any 
moneys at a greater rate of interest than eight per cent." 

The capital was fixed at $1,500,000, but it was provided that "the said 
company shall be at liberty to enlarge their capital as in the progress of their 
undertaking they may find necessary, and that either by additional assessments 
on the original shares, not to exceed in the whole the sum of twenty dollars in 
addition to each original share, or by opening books for enlarging their capital 
by new subscriptions in shares of not more than one hundred dollars, so as to 
make their capital adequate to the works they undertake.'' 

In 1835 the corporate name was changed to that now borne, the Georgia 



34!^ History of Augusta. 

Railroad and Banking Company; the capital stock was fixed at $2,000,000, 
" one-fourth of which, applied to banking purposes, shall be gold or silver coin, 
in shares of one hundred dollars each, of which capital one- half may be used 
for banking purposes, and not more until the completion of the road to Athens 
and one of the southern branches through Greensborough, to be designated by 
the stockholders, at which time any capital stock unemployed may be used for 
banking purposes." The railroad was directed to be completed by December 
18, 1840, and the banking privileges were to expire on December 18, 1865, or 
twenty- five years thereafter. The company was empowered to issue bills, not 
to exceed three times the amount of the banking capital allowed. By the last 
section of this amendatory act it was provided " that no foreigner either di- 
rectly, or indirectly, shall own stock in the said railroad or bank ; and if any 
foreigner shall own stock in anywise, the same shall be forfeited to the State." 
In 1840 this was modified so as to allow foreigners to own stock, provided it 
did not amount in the aggregate to one-third of the entire stock. In 1849 the 
stock was increased to $5,000,000, but it was provided that the banking cap- 
ital should not be increased beyond the amount then authorized by the char- 
ter, namely $1,000,000. 

In 1865 the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company was authorized to 
close up its banking business, the term of that privilege expiring, as has been 
stated, in 1865. In 1870 the banking privileges under the act of 1835, ^"d 
acts amendatory thereof, were renewed and extended to October 19, 1900. 

We here present a statement of amotmt of capital stock of this company, 
and dividends paid thereon from 1836 to 1847; from which, by bearing in 
mind the ratio of banking to entire capital as prescribed by the charter, can be 
seen how the banking department prospered during that period. From 1847 
to the lapse of the banking privilege in 1865, a fuller account can be given : 

Date of Dividend. Capital Stock. Dividend. 

November, 1836 $ 858,615.00 $ 26,018.00 

February, 1837 1,170.715.00 41,452.80 

October, 1837.. 1,434,405.00 53,962.54 

April, 1838 1,910.215.00 70,492.90 

October, 1838 2,011.895.00 80.300.96 

April, 1839 2,116,810.00 84.178.00 

January, 1840 2.143.317.00 86.234.68 

April. 1840 2,193.952.00 86.513.48 

April, 1842 2,201.612.00 230,161.20 

January, 1846 2.288,449 92 45,768.88 

October, 1846 2,289199.92 45.783.99 

April, 1847 2,289,199.92 45.783.99 

From this period can be given the total amount of capital of the company, 
and amount of gross receipts of banking department : 



Banks and Banking. 



349 



Year. Total Capital. Bank Receipts. 

1847 .$2,289,199 $5-1-761 

1849 2,262,497 26, 1 1 5 

1850 4,000,000 50, 1 59 

1851 4,000,000 55.485 

1852 4,000,000 63,661 

1853 4,000,000 95.887 

1856 4,156,000 108,441 

1857 4,156,000 204.881 

1859 4,156,000 134.324 

i860 4,156,000 104,124 

1861 4,156,000 185.209 

1 862 4, 1 56,000 1 50,686 

1S63 4,156,000 435.191 

1864 4,156,000 601,592 

The deposits, discounts, and circulation for the same period are as follows: 

Year. Deposits. 

1847 $112,004 

1849 62,762 

1850 122,666 

1851 163,0:2 

1852 214,552 

1853 72,276 

1856 53,209 

1857 214,101 

1859 • 252,939 

i860 289,114 

1861 290,018 

1862 804,667 

1863 626,849 

1864 99,844 

Having thus given some account of the particular banks existing in Au- 
gusta in ante belhim times, we now proceed to a statement of the banking sys- 
tem as regulated by law. 

In the early part of the nineteenth century banking in Augusta, as else- 
where throughout the State, was conducted in a very loose and irregular way. 
It was then supposed one of the inalienable rights of the citizen to set up a 
bank at pleasure, issue such bills as he saw fit, and financier generally at his 
own good will. The consequence was that the country was overrun with mush- 
room banks and irresponsible paper currency. The need of a better plan was 
sorely felt in Savannah and Augusta, and accordingly the Planters' Bank was 
incorporated in the former city in 1807, and the bank of Augusta in the latter 
in 1 8 10. The good effect of these regular organizations was soon manifest, and 
in 18 1 5 the Legislature began to take steps toward the suppression of the guer- 
rilla style of banking above mentioned. It was enacted that it should not be 



Discounts. 


Circulation, 


$297,447 


$ 376,446 


279,844 


388,330 


500,663 


566,318 


365.832 


657,227 


412,183 


921,654 


578,(59 


1,145,130 


308,778 


1.233,115 


902,206 


1,115.596 


654.799 


1,293.618 


549.295 


1,069.579 


685,349 


1,651,455 


593.375 


1,065.225 


559,066 


1,054,861 


181,319 


1,005,668 



350 History of Augusta. 



lawful for any association or company of persons not having a charter author- 
izing them so to do, to issue "any engraved note or bill, intended to represent 
a bank note, for the sum of two dollars, or for any greater sum." The act also 
stated that "a practice pernicious to the community has prevailed with cor- 
porate bodies, companies, and individuals in this State, of putting in circulation 
small notes, or due bills, to supply a deficiency of change; which pernicious 
practice is calculated to defeat the object it proposes to remedy by expelling 
from circulation the small coins, and is productive of other serious evils," where- 
fore it was provided that any person, body politic or corporate, other than the 
incorporated banks of the State issuing "any engraved or printed note, due 
bill, ticket, or change bill evidencing or intending to evidence that any sum 
less than two dollars is due," should forfeit three times the amount thereof, 
" such recovery to be had by warrant or summons before a justice of the peace, 
and on the trial of every such warrant or summons, if the note, due bill, ticket, 
or change bill be in part or whole engraved or printed, it shall be conclusive 
evidence of an intention to violate this act." The emitters of all such bills then 
out were to pay a tax of twenty per cent, thereon, or in default, be subject to 
a penalty of treble the amount of the bill. 

It is sad to relate that Augusta felt the weight of this statute with special 
force. The city council and the Change Company of Augusta were found to 
have been issuing shin plasters at a terrific rate, and a special act was passed 
for their pardon on condition of paying the tax on their issues in ten days. 

In 1818 the Legislature essayed to lay the ax to the root of the old vol- 
untary system. It was enacted that, from and after January i, 1820, no per- 
son, association of persons, or body corporate should keep any place of business 
for carrying on any kind of banking operation which incorporated banks were 
allowed by their charter to conduct, or issue, emit, circulate, lend, pass, pay, 
or tender in payment, as private bankers, any bills or promissory notes of pri- 
vate bankers, incorporated or unincorporated banks or banking companies, co- 
partnership, or association, by whatsoever name called, unless thereunto spe- 
cially authorized by law. If any person or persons, co-partnership, association 
or corporation should contravene these provisions, such person and every indi- 
vidual member of such copartnership, assoc iation, or body corporate should 
forfeit the sum of $1,000 for each infraction, each day such unauthorized bank 
was kept open, and each note issued, etc., to be a distinct offense. The act 
also required that by the time named, all private bank notes then out should 
be redeemed, on demand, in specie, or notes of incorporated banks of the State, 
or bear interest at the rate of two and a half per cent, per month until paid, 
and that, for any note under one dollar issued without authority of law a pen- 
alty of $100 should be incurred. 

This act dealt a severe blow to private banking, but the issuing of change 
bills was kept up, and by acts passed in 1829 and 1830 it was declared that 



Banks and Banking. ^r. 



on all change bills put in circulation without a charter a tax of fifty per cent 
should be collected, and that for each issual a fine of not less than fifty nor 
more than five hundred dollars should be imposed. To stimulate prosecutions 
It was provided in these acts, as in that of 1818. that half the amount of the 
penalty should ^o to the informer. 

In 1832 the Legislature, reciting that " the circulation of bank bills of a 
small denonnnation has been productive of fraud and loss to the public and 
has a tendency to prevent or retard the general and speedy restoration of a 
specie currency," enacted that the chartered banks should not issue any notes 
of a less denomination of five dollars. The penalty was $100. and each bill a 
separate offense. In 1835 the Legislature, reciting that the act of 1832 " has 
manifestly benefited the circulating medium," enacted that the banks should 
not issue any notes "other than of the denomination of five dollars ten dol- 
lars, twenty dollars, fifty dollars, hundreds of dollars or thousands of dollars " 
under a penalty of $500. In 1842 they were allowed to issue small bills of the 
denomination of one. two, three, and four dollars, to an amount not exceeding 
five per cent, of their capital stock. 

In 1832 failure to redeem a bank note in specie on demand was visited with 
a penalty of ten per cent. In 1840 it was enacted that such failure should ren- 
der the charter forfeitable. In 1 832 it was also enacted that the banks should 
make semi-annual reports to the governor. On failure, their notes were to be 
refused at the State treasury, and the governor was to publish their names in 
the papers of Milledgeville. then the State capital. The report was required 
to state " the amount of bills on other banks of this State; the amount of gold 
silver, and bullion in their vaults ; the amount of debts due them at the North' 
or elsewhere, which may be denominated specie funds; the amount of active' 
or running paper, the amount in suit, the amount under protest, and not in 
suit, and clearly stating what amount of all the debts due the bank is consid- 
ered good, what amount doubtful, and what amount is considered bad and lost 
to the bank, the amount of issues ; the amount of bills in circulation ; and the 
amount of bills of said bank in circulation under the name of deposits; and the 
highest amount due and owing by the bank." 

By act of 1837 no bank was to issue any paper for circulation made pay- 
able at a longer time than three days from date, or redeemable otherwise than 
in specie, under a penalty of $1,000 for each offense. 

In 1838 the Legislature passed " an act to authorize the business of bank- 
mg. and to regulate the same." commonly known as the free banking law 
Ihe system established by this statute is in some particulars much like the na- 
tional bank act. It provided for a commission consisting of the comptroller- 
general and two commissioners chosen by the Legislature to operate the act 
Ihe commission was to prepare a quantity of engraved bank notes in blank of 
the denominations then allowed by law which were to be countersioned 'by 



352 History of Augusta. 



registers appointed by the commission, numbered and registered. Then any 
person or association of persons desiring to do a banking business was to draw 
up and file in the office of the clerk of the Superior Court, where the business 
was to be done, a certificate setting out the name of the proposed association ; 
the place where it proposed to conduct operations ; the amount of capital stock 
(which was not to be less than $100,000) and number of shares proposed; the 
name, residence, and number of shares of each stockholder; the time at which 
the association was to begin, and the period for which it proposed to continue, 
the act making the maximum term twenty years. A copy of this certificate 
was to be furnished the commission, and the applicants were to deposit with it 
certain kinds of securities set out in the act commensurate in amount with the 
number of bills desired. 

The following securities might be furnished: first, any stocks or bonds of 
the United States or the State of Georgia, or of any other State, if approved 
by the commissioner, any stock offered to be equal to a State stock producing 
five per cent. If this kind of security were deposited, the commissioner was 
to issue the incorporators an equal amount of registered notes, the same to 
have stamped upon their face "Secured by the pledge of public stocks." Sec- 
ondly, the incorporators might deposit bonds and mortgages upon real estate, 
bearing at least six per cent. Such morgages were only to be taken when on 
unincumbered lands in Georgia, worth independently of the buildings thereon, 
at least double the amount of bills desired on the pledge thereof, and the com- 
missioners were to investigate title and value. In the event this kind of se- 
curity being accepted, the bills were to be stamped, " Secured by pledges of 
real estate." Thirdly, the incorporators might offer bond and mortgage on 
land, town property, and negroes, in which case the negroes were not to ex- 
ceed one-half the security, and the total amount of such deposit was to be four- 
fold the number of bills required. In this case the bills were to be stamped, 
" Secured by the pledge of real and personal property." On the deposit of 
the security the commission was to issue bills to the proper amount to the in- ' 
corporators, who were thereupon authorized to fill out the notes, the president, 
or vice president, and cashier signing, put them in circulation and do a gen- 
eral banking business. On failure to redeem a note, in specie, on demand, 
and during banking hours, i. e. between nine and two, the bill holder was to 
protest same and file the protest in the controller-general's office, whereupon 
the commission was to call on the bank tp redeem same. If not done is si.xty 
da\s thereafter the commission was to convert the deposit into cash, notify all 
bill holders to come in and pay them out of proceeds of the sale. Incorpora- 
tions under this act were to make semi-annual reports in April and October 
setting out their capital ; value of real estate; number and value of shares, 
stating how many held as collateral ; debts due to and by tiie corporation ; 
disputed claims against it ; circulation, losses, and dividends since preceding 



Banks and Banking. 353 



statement ; monthly average of debts, specie, and circulation ; and increase of 
capital, if any. This report was to be published in the county where the cor- 
poration was doing business, and failure to make statement, or violation of 
any requirement of the law, operated a loss of franchise. In addition to the 
regular reports, any creditors or stockholders representing $5,000 could ob- 
tain an order from the judge of the Superior Court for an examination and re- 
port by an expert of the state of affairs, or the commission could make exam- 
ination. In 1841 this act was so amended as to require only so much of the 
deposits to be sold as were necessary to satisfy the protested bills. 

In 1837 ^'^ the banks in Augusta succumbed to the panic which swept 
over the United States in that year, and suspended specie payments. But 
three banks in the State, the Central Bank, the Columbus Bank, and the In- 
surance Bank of Columbus withstood the storm. In 1836 three-fourths of 
Georgia's quota of the surplus revenue of the United States, or $1,051,421.09 
had been received and deposited in the Central Bank and this measurably re- 
lieved the general distress. The blow, however, was a severe one. The banks 
remained suspended, and the act of 1840 was passed to coerce a resumption 
of specie payments, under penalty of dissolution. The law officers of the 
State were busy forfeiting charters. The banks claimed the act of 1840 un- 
constitutional, and in 1841, the penalties claimed to have been incurred were 
remitted on condition of resumption by January i, 1842. 

Twenty years after the panic of 1837, another period of financial distress 
occurred. The Legislature of 1857 suspended the operation of the act of 
1840, which forfeited the charter of a bank for suspension of specie payments, 
until November 15, 1858. The act was vetoed by the then executive, Gov- 
ernor Brown, and while repassed over the veto, the contentions on the subject, 
known as " the battle of the banks," created great excitement in Augjusta, and 
throughout Georgia at the time. The bill was originally passed by a vote of 
58 to 27 in the Senate, and 64 to 50 in the House. The governor sent in a 
veto message, which, while ostensibly confined to the measure under review, 
was really an attack upon banking and an argument against having any banks 
at all. His first point was that banks had peculiar privileges which were de- 
nied the ordinary citizen, and instanced this in the following way : " Two men 
work with their hands, the primary mode of making capital, till each makes a 
dollar in gold or silver. One loans his at interest. The law of our State per- 
mits him to receive only seven cents for the use of it one year, and if he 
charges more the law declares the excess to be usurious and void. The other 
applies to the Legislature and obtains a charter conferring upon him banking 
privileges. By this charter it is made lawful for him to pay his dollar as capi- 
tal stock into the bank and to issue upon it three paper dollars. The bank is 
permitted to loan these three paper dollars at interest, and charge seven per 
cent, on each of them. If he were to loan them for one year at legal interest 

45 



3 §4 History of Augusta. 



he would receive for them twenty-one cents. These three paper dollars are 
based upon the one dollar in i^old or silver, and the bank in fact receives the 
twenty-one cents interest upon his one dollar in specie, while the person with- 
out banking privileges receives only seven cents interest upon his dollar. But 
the banker is not content with twenty- one per cent, a year, or three times the 
amount received by his neighbor who is without banking privileges. He will 
not, therefore, lend his three paper dollars (his own notes) a year at seven per 
cent., but he will loan them at thirty days, first deducting interest out of the 
sum loaned, if the borrower will also pay one half, one, two or three per cent. 
a month usury under the name of exchange. . . . This increases the in- 
terest received on the banker's three paper dollars, or one silver dollar, to 
twenty-five, thirty, or thirty-five per cent, dependent on the amount of ex- 
change or usury added each time the note or bill is renewed." He then pro- 
ceeds to say that this is not all. The banker has still left the one silver dollar 
on which the three paper dollars were issued, and while the charter says the 
one silver dollar must be paid in before the three paper dollars issue, it does 
not say it must stay in, after they are issued. He can, therefore, lend that out 
too, and thereby make on the use of his one dollar from thirty to fifty per cent, 
while the non-banker can only make seven. 

The consideration of the privileges accorded banks is, he says, that they 
should furnish a paper currency at all times convertible into specie on demand. 
Out of their profits they should buy specie and resume. He aflfirms that by 
suspending they are guilty of a high commercial, moral, and legal crime ; a 
commercial crime because by suspending, they have brought on a commercial 
crisis, causing cotton to fall from seventeen to ten or eleven cents a pound and 
other property in proportion; a moral crime by refusing to keep faith with the 
people by the redemption of their promises ; a legal crime by violating a posi- 
tive statute of the State. 

Since the establishment of the banking system in Georgia he notes that 
the country has passed through two or three periods of like distress. In 1840 
the people determined to apply a remedy to suspensions at such epochs, and 
passed the act which makes a forfeiture of charter the penalty of suspension. 
If that law be violated the penalty should follow. None should be above the 
law. 

He could not admit that the suspension ot the Northern banks compelled 
those of Georgia to do so also. If so, why was it that nine of the South Caro- 
lina banks, most of those in Alabama, all of the Kentucky banks, and four or 
five in Georgia had not suspended ? The constitution of Louisiana forbade the 
Legislature of that State to legalize a bank suspension. Referring to the state- 
ment that large public meetings in Augusta and Savannah had asked the banks 
to suspend, he queries how many bank directors, stockholders, or otherwise in- 
terested had managed these meetings, and asks why none were held elsewhere 



Banks and Banking. ^ct 

in the State. He then discusses some of the details of the bill and takes up 
the argument that it would react injuriously on the people to wind up the banks 
as the banks only owe the people $5,000,000 and the people owe the banks 
$22,000,000. This being so, would alarmingly evidence how the banks are 
concentrating the wealth of the country in their own hands, but it is not true 
according to the sworn statements of the presidents and cashiers whose reports 
as made to the executive office "balance to a quarter of a cent." This ex- 
pression was long memorable in Georgia. Lastly argues it was part of the 
contract whereby the bill-holder took the bill, that of the bank did not redeem 
It on demand, in specie, its charter should be forfeited, and argues that the act 
to legalize the suspension impaired the obligation of this contract and thereby 
violated constitution of the United States. 

Great was the excitement in the Legislature when this veto came in. Long 
and fiery were the speeches, but the bill was repassed by 61 to 22 in the Sen- 
ate, and 68 to 33 in the House, a small gain for the bill in either body. As 
will be remembered, the suspension was legaHzed to November 15, 1858. but 
on May i, 1858. the banks resumed specie payment. A golden era ensued and 
lasted till the outbreak of the war, but before entering on this period we may 
give some further idea of banking in Augusta up to the time of the panic of 
1857. 

In 1835 there were eleven banks in operation in Georgia with an aggregate 
capitalof $4,571,000, a total circulation of $3,942,000, and the sum of $2,1 1 1,- 
000 in specie in their vaults. Three of the banks were in Augusta with cap- 
ital, circulation, and specie as follows : 

Capital. Circulation. Specie in Vault. 

Bank of Augusta $ 600,000 f 607,545 $ 381,181 

Augusta Insurance and Banking Co... i75,oo« 160,146 78,404 

, Mechanics' Bank 400,000 457.244 207^598 

$1,175,000 $1,224,935 $667,183 

TotalinState $4,571,000 $3,942,000 $2,111,000 

In 1838 there were nineteen banks, the railroad banks being excluded, with 
a total capital of $8,648,562. The three Augusta banks above mentioned had 
an aggregate capitalization of 2,700,000, namely. Bank of Augusta, $1,200,- 
000; Augusta Insurance and Banking Company, $500,000; Mechanics' Bank, 
$1,000,000. 

The early policy of the State was to subsidize banks as it were by liberal 
subscriptions to stock, and from a report made in 1839 we have a very fair 
idea of the dividend paying power of the old Bank of Augusta. We give the 
names of the banks in which the State had stock, number of shares, amount 
paid therefor, and dividends and bonus received thereon from 1829 to 1838, 
both inclusive ; 



356 History of Augusta. 



■ Bank. No. Shares. Amt. Paid. Dividends. Bonus. Total. Per.Ct. 

State Bank 5,000 $500,000 $380,000 $30,000 $410,000 .82 

Bank of Darien 5.000 325,000 178,750 178,750 .55 

Bank of Augusta 1,000 100,000 80,000 20,310 100,310 1.03 

Planters' Bank 1,000 80,000 56,800 56,800 .71 

Showing that during this period the Bank of Augusta paid a regular eight 
per cent, dividend, and a bonus equal to two per cent more. In process of 
time the State's bank stock became reduced from one cause or another, and in 
1859 there remained of the above but 1,833 shares in the State Bank and 890 
shares in the Bank of Augusta. To this had been added 186 shares of stock in 
the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, and the comptroller-general in 
1859 states that these stocks paid an annual average dividend often per cent. 
As the Georgia Railroad Bank paid but eight per cent, in 1859 the other two 
must have averaged an eleven per cent, dividend. 

In i860 there were twenty-five banks in Georgia, including the Georgia 
and Central Railroad Banks, with an aggregate capital of $9,028,078, Augusta 
having six, with a capital of $2,675,000, as follows : Bank of Augusta, $600,- 
000; Mechanics' Bank, $500,000; Georgia Railroad Bank, $500,000; City 
Bank, $400,000 ; Augusta Insurance and Banking Company, $375,000; Union 
Bank, $300,000 The prosperity of the State at this time was marvellous. 
The depression of 1857 passed away by the spring of 1858, and from that time 
to the outbreak of the war the taxable property of Georgia increased at a rate 
never known before. We have said that a golden era preceded the war, and 
the tax books sustain the assertion. The total valuation of the State and of 
Richmond county for the years 1858, 1859 and i860, distinguishing slave prop- 
erty from other property, we here give : 

1858. 

Slaves. Other Property. Total Valuation. 

The State $227,468,927 $311,586,187 $539,055,114 

Richmond county 3.693,300 14,390,781 18,084,081 

1859. 

The State $271,620,405 $337,989,471 $609,589,876 

Richmond county 4,302,075 15.575-845 19,987,920 

i860. 

The State $302,694,855 $369,627,922 $672,322,777 

Richmond county 4,407,870 17,166,487 21,574,357 

The total valuation for the years named showed the following astounding 

increase : 

State. Increase. Richmond Co. Increase. 

1858 $539,055,114 $18,084,081 

1859 609,589,876 $70,534,762 19,987,920 $1,903,839 

i860 672,322,777 62,732,901 21,574,357 1,586,437 

$133,267,663 $3,490,276 

Slave increase '58-'59 75,225,928 714,570 

Other proj)erty 58,042,635 2,775,706 



Banks and Banking. 357 

Showing that, in the two years immediately preceding the war, the wealth 
of the State in property other than in slaves, had increased about eleven per 
cent., and the like wealth of Richmond county had increased fifteen per cent. 
The wealth of Richmond county in i860 was made up of the following items : 

Money and solvent debts $7,11 8,247 

Crty or town property 4,964,450 

Land 1,941,448 

Merchandise 1,736,850 

Other property 1,405,492 

117,166,487 

Slaves 4.407,870 

'^21, 574,357 

But even this does not fully represent the taxable property of the county 
in i860. It only represents the property returned to the county receiver of 
tax returns. There was, as we have seen, an aggregate bank capital in Au- 
gusta in i860 of $2,675,000, which made return direct to the controller-gen- 
eral, and, accordingly, does not appear on the books of the local officials. In 
addition to this there were exempt from taxation all annual crops and provi- 
sions, all libraries, all fire-arms, all poultry, all plantation and mechanical tools, 
and all household and kitchen furniture not above three hundred dollars in 
value, all lands and stocks of literary associations, and two hundred dollars 
worth of all other property to each taxpayer. It is probably within bounds 
to say that, exclusive of slaves, Richmond county had, at least, $20,000,000 of 
property in i860. The State tax was six and one-half cents on the $100; the 
State debt was $2,670,750 ; its assets were the State or Western and Atlantic 
Railroad, which cost $4,441,532, and paid $450,000 yearly into the treasury, 
and $807,025 in good, dividend paying stocks and bonds; there were 400 luna- 
tics, 247 felons, and no paupers in a population of 1,057,248. It was truly a 
golden era, but this prosperity was laid a sacrifice on the altar of war. 

In i860 the Legislature authorized an issue of $1,000,000 in six per cent, 
twenty-year bonds, of which amount the banks of Augusta at once took $267,- 
000, thus: Bank of Augusta, $60,000 ; Mechanics' Bank, $50,000; Georgia 
Railroad and Banking Company, $50,000 ; City Bank, $40,000 ; Augusta In- 
surance and Banking Company, $37,500, and the Union Bank, $30,000. 

In the same year an act was passed relieving the banks from liability to for- 
feiture of their charters, up to December, 1861, in event they should be com 
pelled to suspend specie payments, a privilege subsequently extended. In 
1 86 1 the banks lent the State $2,000,000 of their notes to bridge over an 
emergency. In 1862, in order to enable the State to assume her quota, $2,441,- 
000, of the direct tax levied by the Confederate Congress, the banks took 
$1,920,000 of the bonds issued to meet that tax. From this time on there was 



358 History of Augusta. 



financial chaos. At the close of the war the State's indebtedness in bonds and 
notes was $20,811,525. The war bonds amounted to $3,308,500, in two is- 
sues, one of $2,441,000 Confederate direct tax bonds, and one of $867,500 of 
State defense bonds, tiie residue of the issue of $1,000,000 not being placed. 
There were out $3,758,000 of non-interest bearing treasury notes and treasury 
certificates of deposit, " payable in eight per cent, bonds or specie, six months 
after a treaty of peace, or when the banks of Savannah and Augusta resume 
specie payment, if before that time." There were also out non- interest bear- 
ing treasury notes and treasury certificates of deposit " payable in specie or 
six per cent, bonds of the State, six months after a treaty of peace shall have 
been ratified between the United States and the Confederate States," to the 
amount of $4,800,000. There were also in circulation Georgia treasury notes, 
payable in Confederate treasury notes " if presented within three months after 
maturity, otherwise not redeemable except in payment of public dues," to the 
amount of $5,171,500; and, lastly, there were change bills outstanding, pay- 
able only in Confederate treasury notes, to the amount of $977,775- The 
change bills were in the following denominations, five, ten, fifteen, twenty, 
twenty-five, fifty, and seventy-five cents, and one, two, three, and four dollars. 
Some $3,000,000 of these bills were issued. 

How the banks fared during this period of inflation and distress may be 
surmised from the following statistics : 

1862. 1863. 1864. 

Capital $17,262,072 $17,335,832 $17,131,382 

Circulation 15,339,241 15,572,542 15,135,680 

Confederate bonds 2,367,029 3,528,616 6,207,227 

Confederate notes 3,032,832 21,928,371 7.613,305 

State bonds 1,332,205 '.359.950 1,287,500 

State notes 527,700 1,260,747 1,524,042 

Specie 1,643,463 1,498,118 1,294,527 

Deposits 11,588,378 25,101,848 2,833,928 

During the war one of the banks now in operation in Augusta was char- 
tered, to wit: The Commercial Bank, though, as originally incorporated in 
1863. it was called the Commercial Insurance Company of Augusta. At a 
subsequent date it was changed into a bank, and will be more fully mentioned 
hereafter. 

When the war closed, the ante bcllniii banks of Augusta were practically 
wiped out of existence. Most of them had erected handsome buildings in the 
day of their prosperity, and some of these landmarks remain. The Mechanics' 
Bank building has already been mentioned as the granite structure on the north 
side of Broad street, a few doors east of Washington street. The Bank of Au- 
gusta had erected in 1856 a handsome brownstone front banking building on 
the north side of Broad street, between Mcintosh and Jackson streets. The 
City Bank was on the same square where the Southern Express Company office 




.^^^<^^ 




Banks and Banking. 359 



is now located. The Augusta Insurance and Banking Company had its quar- 
ters in the bank building on the same side of Broad street, between Jackson and 
Campbell, afterwards occupied by the Bank of Augusta, a corporation created 
since the war with the same name as the old bank, and now by Fleming, 
Thomas & Co., bankers. The Union Bank was located on same side of Broad 
street, between Campbell and Cumming streets, where tiie shoe house of Mul- 
herin, Rice & Co., is now. The Georgia Railroad Bank occupied its present 
location, but from 1865 to 1870 did no banking business, its franchise having 
expired in the former and not being renewed till the latter year. 

In December, 1865, the National Bank of Augusta was organized under 
the national bank act, with a capital of $500,000. The main spirit in its or- 
ganization was that wealthy and powerful capitalist who has been connected 
with the starting of so many great and substantial enterprises, Mr. H. B. Plant. 
The first president of the bank was William B. Dinsmore, of New York. The 
administration of the bank, however, was carried on by the vice-president 
Judge B. H. Warren, until his death. At his demise the position of president 
was given to that capable financier, Mr. William E. Jackson, long president of 
the Augusta factory, who remained at the head of the institution until his 
death. Upon the decease of Mr. Jackson Mr Z. McCord was chosen. Mr. 
McCord was succeeded in the presidency by Mr. Charles Estes, for many years 
mayor of Augusta, and now president of the King Mills. Mr. Estes was suc- 
ceeded by Mr. James Tobin, a most capable financier. From the organization 
of the bank up to 1884, Mr. George M. Thew was cashier, and was then suc- 
ceeded by Mr. A. C. Beane. This bank has had the good fortune to have had 
excellent management during the whole period of its existence, and passed 
with flying colors through the crisis of 1873. The capital stock of the bank is 
$500,000, and the surplus $100,000. It carries an average deposit of from 
$325,000 to $350,000. 

The National Exchange Bank of Augusta was organized under the national 
bank act in August, 1871, with a capital of $250,000. Mr. Alfred Baker, a 
veteran financier, whose biography appears elsewhere in this work, is the pres- 
ident of this institution, and has been from the time of its organization. For 
a number of years Mr. Joseph S. Beane, sr., a brother of the cashier of the Na- 
tional Bank of Augusta, was cashier, and since his death the position has been 
very ably filled by Captain Charles E. Coffin, a gentleman whose high charac- 
ter and great financial skill have made him treasurer of many of the associa- 
tions of the city. 

The State banks of Augusta are four in number, namely: The Georgia 
Railroad and Banking Company Bank, commonly called the Georgia Railroad 
Bank, The Commercial Bank, The Augusta Savings Bank, and The Planters' 
Loan and Savings Bank. 

The history of the Georgia Railroad Bank up to 1864 has heretofore been 



36o 



History of Augusta. 



given. In December of that year the banking franchise of the company ex- 
pired, and no effort was then made to obtain an extension or renewal thereof 
In his annual report in 1864, Hon. John P. King, president of this company, 
said: "The banking charter expires in December next, and the Legislature 
has refused to renew it except upon terms deemed inadmissable. Banking 
charters are now of no value, and are in fact a heavy burden upon stockholders. 
From a very general misunderstanding of the resources of banks, and the ex- 
tent of their prohts, they seem to be considered by government, both State 
and Confederate, a never ending resource of taxation. If they can so use their 
assets as to liquidate their liabilities, it is probable that most of them will deem 
it good policy to surrender their charters and wind up their institutions." 
These views met the approval of stockholders, and no effort was made to ob- 
tain an extension of the banking franchise of the company. By act of 1865 
the Legislature empowered it in order the better to close up its banking busi- 
ness to use the corporate name in all suits, legal proceedings, acts, and con- 
tracts where necessary to this end, and further empowered it to loan at seven 
per cent, for not exceeding six months any surplus money then on hand, pro- 
vided, however, no notes were issued or other banking business done. A state- 
ment of the dividends paid by this company from the time it first got fairly in 
operation up to April, 186 1, will be of interest, and is here subjoined. 

Statement of Dividends Declared on the Stock of the Georgia Railroad 

AND Banking Company. 



Date of Dividend. 



Number of 
Dividend. 



November, 1836. 

February, 1837. 

October^ 1837 

April. 1838, 

October, 1838 

April, 1839 

January, 1840 

April, ' 1840 

April, 1842 

January, 1846 

Octol)er, 1846 

April, 1847 

October, 1847 

April, 1848 

October, 1848 

April, 1849 

October, 1849 

April, 1850 

October, 1850 

April, 1 85 1 

October, 1851 

April, 1852 

October, 1852 

April, 1853 

October, 1853 



No. I 

" 2 

" 3 

" 4 

" 5 

" 6 

" 7 

'• 8 

" 9 

'' 10 

" 1 1 

'' 12 

" 13 

" 14 

" 15 

" 16 

" 17 

" 18 

" 19 

" 20 

" 21 

" 22 

'• 23 

" 24 

" 25 



Capital Stock. 



^ 858,615 
1,170,715 
1,434,405 
1,910,215 
2,01 1,895 
2,1 16,810 

2,143.317 
2,193,952 
2,201,612 
2,288,449 
2,289,199 
2,289,199 
2,289,199 
2,293,1 18 
2,262,497 
2,262,497 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 
4,000,000 



00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
92 
92 

92 
92 

36 
16 
16 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
00 



Amount of 
Dividend. 



26,018 00 

41,452 80 

53.962 54 

70,492 90 

80,300 96 

84,178 00 

86,233 58 

86,513 48 

220,161 20 

45,768 88 

55.783 99 

45.783 99 

68,675 99 

68,807 01 

67,874 91 

79,187 31 

140,000 00 

140,000 00 

140,000 00 

140,000 00 

140,000 00 

140,000 00 

140,000 00 

160,000 00 

160,000 00 



Banks and Banking. 



361 



Date of Dividend. 



April, 1854 

April. 1855 

October, 1855 

April, 1856 

October, 1856 

April, 1857 

November, 1857 

April, 1858 

October, 1858 

April, 1859 

October, 1859 

April, i860 

October, i860 

April, 1861 



Number of 
Dividend. 



26 
27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 
37 
38 
39 



Capital Stock. 



4,156 
4,156, 
4,156 
4,156: 
4, 1 56: 
4,156 
4,156 
4-156 
4,156 
4,156 
4,156 
4,156 
4,156 
4,156 



000 00 
000 00 
000 00 
000 00 
000 00 
000 00 
000 00 
,000 00 
,000 00 
,000 00 
,000 00 
000 00 
,000 00 
,000 00 



Amount of 
Dividend, 

166,240 00 
145,460 00 
145,460 00 
166,240 00 
166,240 00 
166,240 00 
124,680 00 
124,680 00 
145,460 00 
166,240 00 
166,240 00 
166,240 00 
166,240 00 
166,240 00 



It will be perceived that even during the panics of 1837 ^"^ ' ^5 7 this com- 
pany regularly paid its dividend ; and it may be here added that after pay- 
ment of the last dividend, in April, 1861, there was then to the credit of the re- 
serve fund the sum of $1,065,642. In a quarter of a century of operation, and 
that when railroading was in its infancy, some $4,700,000 was paid out in divi- 
dends. By act of October 19, 1870, the banking powers and privileges con- 
ferred on the company by the act of 1835, heretofore mentioned, were con- 
tinued to it for the term of thirty years, or up to October 19, 1900. From 
1861 to 1881 it paid out in dividends the sum of $4,154,576, or $99 50 per 
share. The capital of this company is $4,200,000, and the business done by 
this bank is the heaviest in the State, reaching $75,000,000 in a single year. 
It has has had but two presidents in its long career, Hon. John P. King, who 
presided over its affairs from 1833 to 1881, and Mr. Charles H. Phinizy since 
that date. More of this wonderfully successful corporation will be found in the 
chapter on railroads. 

The Commercial Bank was originally chartered in 1863, for a term of thirty 
years, under the name of *' The Commercial Insurance Company of Augusta." 
The incorporators were Henry F. Russell, Barney S. Dunbar, Jacob Danforth, 
William Battersby, Henry E. Clark, James T. Gardiner, Daniel B. Plumb, and 
George T. Barnes. The capital stock was fixed at $250,000 increasable to 
$1,000,000, but operations could be be^^un when $100,000 was subscribed, and 
five per cent thereof paid in. The company was authorized to insure against 
losses by fire in all kinds of property ; also against the hazards of ocean or in- 
land navigation and transportation of every kind ; also, to make insurance on 
lives and every insurance appertaining to the duration of life. It was further 
empowered to receive money on deposit and make loans and discounts. The 
stockholders were made individually liable for the debts of the company to 
double the amount of their respective shaies. In 1872 the corporate name 
was amended so that the same should be the Commercial Insurance and 
Banking Company of Augusta; and in 1875 was again changed to its pres- 
46 



S62 History of Augusta. 



ent style the Commercial Bank of Augusta. In 1876 the bank was author- 
ized to reduce its capital stock from $300,000 to $200,000, without prejudice 
to a right to a future increase under its charter, the reduction to be made by a 
purchase and retirement of its stock. The personal liability clause of the char- 
ter was reaffirmed, and as to the retired stock was to continue for twelve 
months after such retirement. In 1887 the charter was extended for thirty 
years, and many valuable franchises were conferred upon it, by which it re- 
ceived the most enlarged banking powers, was authorized to create a savings 
department, to receive realty as collateral, or to deal in such property, to act 
as fiscal agent for the negotiation of bonds or to act as executor, trustee, agent, 
assignee, or receiver. The capital of this bank is $300,000. Mr. John A. 
North, an experienced financier, is president. 

The Augusta Savings Institution of Augusta, Ga., was incorporated in 1875, 
and has been in successful operation since May of that year. The corporators 
were Alfred Baker, John B. King, William B. Young, George T. Barnes, Will- 
iam H. Howard, sr., E. R. Schneider, Charles Spaeth, C. Hunneken, Patrick 
Walsh, William Mulherin, and Edward O'Donnell. The bank was authorized 
to make loans and discounts, to receive deposits on interest; act as trustee ; in- 
vest in stocks, bonds, or mortgnges on real estate. Deposits as small as one 
dollar were made receivable ; no manager, officer, or agent of the corporation 
was to be allowed to borrow therefrom ; the management was to be in the 
hands of a board of managers ; and the private property of the managers for 
the time being is made liable for all deposits and for all debts incurred by the 
institution while under their management in the same manner as in ordinary 
commercial cases or cases of debt. Semi-annual returns are to be made to the 
governor setting out in detail the condition of the institution. 

In 1 88 1 the charter was so amended as to make the board of managers con- 
sist of four members, and it was declared that the private property of all incor- 
porators for the time being should be liable for deposits or debts as in the act 
of 1875. Mr. Alfred Baker, president of the National Exchange Bank, is also 
president of this institution, and Mr. W illiam B. Young, cashier. 

The Planters' Loan and Savings Bank was incorporated in 1870, Charles J. 
Jenkins. John P. King, George M. Thew, Benjamin Conley, Thomas P. Branch, 
Joseph S Bean, William H. Goodrich, William H. Scott, and M. I. Branch be- 
ing tne incorporators. The cipital stock w.is $1, 000,000, and when $100,000 
was subscribed, and $50,000 paid in, the corporation was authorized to organize 
and proceed to business. The ordinary banking powers were granted, and, in 
addition, authority to purchase, hold, and sell real estate in the course of its 
business; act as trustee; guarantee securities, and loan on mortgages on real 
and personal property, or on crop liens, receiving interest in money or products, 
or both. Stockholders were individually liable for the debts of the bank in pro- 
portion to their stock. In 1873 the charter was amended so as to make the 
shares ten dollars each instead of one hundred dollars. 



Banks and Banking. 36^ 



In 1887 the bank was authorized to change its name to the People's Insur- 
ance and Banking Company; and to do a fire and marine insurance by partici- 
pating policies if deemed advisable ; it being provided that no stockholder 
should be individually liable on insurance policies. The president of this bank 
is Mr. William E. Benson, and its capital stock $100,000. 

The aggregate banking operations of the city will run to $200,000,000. 
The foreign exchange is $17,000,000 For cotton alone $280,000 have been 
used in one day. As much as $800,000 has been sent to Augusta to purchase 
cotton. The direction of exchanges has largely changed to the West from the 
North. 

Quite a number of other banks have been incorporated for Augusta since 
the war, but never went into operation, or have ceased to exist. Some sketch 
of them may be of interest. 

In 1865 the City Loan Association and Savings Bank of Augusta was in- 
corporated, the incorporators being Henry Myers, W. H. Howard, F. C Barber, 
Joseph P. Carr, John E. Marley, W. A. Ramsey, William C. Barber, and John 
Kenny. The capital stock was $100,000, increasable to $400,000 in $50 
shares, said stock being pledged for the security of deposits, and stockholders 
being liable to depositors to the extent of their unpaid stock. The corpora- 
tion was vested with the ordinary banking powers, but forbidden to issue notes 
or bills as a circulating medium. 

In the same year the Mechanics' Savings Bank of Augusta was incorpor- 
ated with a capital of $200,000, increasable to $400,000 in $50 shares, the 
corporators being Henry Moore, Porter Fleming, John H. Baker, John D, Butt, 
George McCord, C. A. Rowland, John Butt, Charles Estes, W. E. Jackson, and 
George T. Jackson. 

In 1865 a third bank, the Savings Bank of Augusta, was incorporated with 
a capital of $30,000, increasable to $100,000 in $100 shares, H, H. Hickman, 
E. P. Clayton, J. B. Walker, T. W. Chichester, Benjamin Conley, and C. F. 
McCay being the incorporators. The capital was made a fund pledged for the 
security of depositors. In 1866 the charter was so amended as to allow the 
capital to be increased to $500,000. 

In 1872 the name was amended by striking the word " savings" therefrom 
so that it then read, the Bank of Augusta, being identical in name with the 
venerable bank of 18 10. 

In 1879 the capital, then $350,000, was authorized to be reduced to any 
sum not below $200,000 by purchase and retirement of stock, and the bank 
was made one of deposit, discount, and loan. In 1 882 the stock was authorized 
to be further reduced from its then figure, $350,009, to $125,000 in same man- 
ner. In 1886 this bank failed. 

In 1872 the City Loan and Savings Bank of Augusta was incorporated with 
a capital not to exceed $500,000 in $100 shares, organization to be had when 



364 History of Augusta. 



$100,000 was subscribed and $50,000 paid in ; John P. King, Thomas G. Bar- 
rett, Charles H. Phinizy, George T. Jackson, W. M. Read, W. H. Barrett, Will- 
iam C. Sibley, and P. H. Woodward being the incorporators. This bank was 
authorized to receive deposits, make or negotiate loans, guarantee securities, 
act as trustee, and exercise the powers generally of the Planter's Loan and 
Savings Bank. 

In 1873 the Manufacturers' Bank of Augusta was chartered with a capital 
of $100,000, increasable to $500,000 in $100 shares. P2ach stockholder was 
liable in proportion to the amount of his stock. The incorporators were Will- 
iam S. Roberts, Henr)^ F. Russell, Charles H. Phinizy, William T. Wheless, 
and William F. Herring. 

In 1879 Joseph S. Bean, jr., D. B. Hack, M. A. Stovall, John D. Hahn, and 
Ernest R. Schneider were incorporated as the Augusta Savings Bank. 

In 1880 the Citizens' Bank of Augusta was incorporated with a capital of 
$200,000, increasable to $500,000 in $100 shares, business to begin when 
$20,000 was paid in. This bank was authorized to issue bills not to exceed 
three times the amount of the capital paid in, and stockholders were individu- 
ally liable in proportion to their stock. The incorporators were William H. 
Howard, Vernon Richards, William A. Latimer, John Doscher, John W. Wal- 
lace, Andrew J. Smith, Bernard Franklin, John A. Bell, Zachariah McCord, 
and Patrick Armstrong. In 1881 the charter was amended so as to allow busi- 
ness to begin when $io,000 was paid in. 

In 1 88 1 William J. Wheless. Edgar R. Derry, J. V. H. Allen, P. E. Pearce, 
and H. Clay Foster were incorporated as the City Bank of Augusta, with a 
capital stock of $200,000, increasable to $1,000,000 in $100 shares, business 
to begin when $50,000 was paid in. The stockholders were liable to con- 
tribute to the payment of the debts of the corporation an amount equal to the 
par value of the stock held by them at the time of the bank failure. 

During the existence of the State banking system divers highly penal laws 
were passed for the purpose of preventing violations of the trust and confidence 
necessarily reposed in such institutions. These statutes were codified into the 
penal code adopted in 1833, and at various times since have been amplified or 
amended. To a certain extent they are still applicable to banks operating 
under the State system, and some synopsis of this legislation will be here given. 

Any president, director, or stockholder of an incorporated bank of this State 
who shall embezzle, steal, secrete, or fraudulently take and carry away any 
bullion, notes, bill, bills of exchange, warrants, deeds, bonds, drafts, checks, or 
other things of value, the property thereof, or any of the books thereof, is pun- 
ishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not less than two nor longer 
seven years. Any president, director, or other officer of any such bank vio- 
lating, or being concerned in the violation, of any provision of the bank charter, 
is punishable by like imprisonment for not less than one year or more than ten. 



Banks and Banking. 3^5 



Every such officer is presumed to have a sufficient knowledge of the affairs of 
his institution to determine whether any act or omission is a violation of the 
charter, and if present at a meeting where such violation occurs is deemed to 
have concurred therein unless he cause his dissent to be entered at the time on 
the minutes of the board ; and if not present, but remaining an officer for three 
months thereafter without entering his dissent, is also deemed to have con- 
curred therein. Every insolvency of a chartered bank or failure to redeem its 
bills on demand, in specie or current bank bills, is deemed fraudulent, but the 
officials may repel this presumption by showing that the affairs of the bank 
have been fairly and legally administered, and that the officers thereof have 
used the same care and diligence as all other agents receiving a compensation 
for their services are required by law to exercise. Where deposits are made 
in a bank at the time insolvent, and so known by the officials having charge 
thereof, and the deposit is not paid to the depositor within three days after de- 
mand, such officers are punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary for not 
less than one year, nor more thixn ten. All conveyances, assignments, or 
transfers of stock or effects made by a bank in contemplation of insolvency, or 
after insolvency, except for the benefit of all the stockholders and creditors, un- 
less made for value to an innocent purchaser are void ; and the officers making or 
consenting to such assignment, etc., even if to an innocent purchaser, are pun- 
ishable by like imprisonment for not less than four nor more than ten years. 
Purchase by bank officers of its paper at a discount either for themselves or 
the bank is punishable by a like term as that first mentioned. Declaring 
fraudulent dividends, or other than out of net proceeds, is similiarly punish- 
able. Purchase of shares with the capital stock is punishable by from one to 
ten years imprisonment. 

On the organization of the royal, or king's, government in Georgia in 1755, 
one of the first statutes was one regulating the rate of interest which was al- 
lowed to be ten per cent. In 1759, this was reduced to eight per cent, the 
preamble to the act reciting that " the high rate of interest in this province of 
Georgia is a great discouragement to planters gjid others from improving their 
landed estates, by reason that the profits arising from such improvements do 
not equal the sum paid for money so laid out and employed." It was there- 
fore provided that all agreements wherein it was stipulated that a greater 
interest than eight per cent, per annum should be paid, should be utterly voidi 
and that any one taking a greater rate shonid forfeit three times the sum loaned. 

In 18 14 the same rate was re-affirmed and the penalty left as it stood. 

In 1822 the act of 1759 was so amended as to forfeit only the entire in- 
terest, but to leave the principal recoverable. 

In 1845 the rate was reduced ro seven per cent, any excess to forfeit the 
whole interest but impose no other penalty. 

In 1857 it was provided that the rate of bank discount should not exceed 



366 History of Augusta. 



seven per cent, per annum, under penalty of avoiding and annulling the entire 
debt. 

By the code of 1863 the rate was to be seven per cent. ; all over was usury; 
but the effect of the usury was only to void the contract so far as the usury 
was concerned, leaving the principal and legal interest thereon recoverable. 

In 1 87 1 it was enacted that if the contract were silent as to the rate of in- 
terest, seven per cent, was collectible ; but by contract in writing any rate 
not to exceed ten per cent, should be legal ; if more was stipulated, only the 
excess was non- collectible. 

In 1872, it was provided that no bank should charge over seven per cent, 
on loan or discount, and any excess paid should be recoverable if sued for 
within sixty days after payment thereof. 

In 1873 banks were placed on the same footing as individuals as regards 
interest, usury, and penalties, the effect of which was to restore the act of 1871, 
but five days after this first act, a second was passed which abolished the usury 
laws in toto, and established a conventional rate of interest, that is, made it law- 
ful to contract in writing for any rate agreed upon by the parties, whether 
more or less than seven per cent. If no rate was stated, seven per cent, was 
to be understood. 

In 1875 the rate was restricted to not exceeding twelve per cent, provided 
it were specified in writing. For an excess both excess and interest were for- 
feited. If no rate was expressed, seven per cent, was to be understood. 

In 1879 it was made unlawful to charge more than eight per cent.; and 
any excess, forfeited both interest and excess. Seven per cent, still remained 
the rate where none was expressed. This act made it obligatory on any party 
suing on a contract which expressed a higher rate than seven per cent, to 
allege and prove that no greater rate than eight per cent, had been, or was to 
be, taken. 

In 1 88 1 this act was amended so as to make the penalty for a greater rate 
than eight per cent, a forfeiture of excess only ; and to do away with the re- 
quirement of proving no excess had been, or was to be taken ; so that as the law 
now stands, the legal rate of interest is seven per cent, where nothing is said 
upon the subject in the contract, but by specifying the same, the rate may be 
not exceeding eight per cent, the penalty for excess being forfeiture of excess. 
With this we may end a somewhat extended sketch of banks and banking 
in Augusta. It will be seen that in the long course of some eighty years since 
the old Bank of Augusta the second bank chartered in Georgia, was incorporated, 
the record of banking in the city has been highly creditable. One failure be- 
fore, and one since, the war, the instances occurring about a half a century 
apart, form the exceptions which demonstrate an excellent general rule. The 
downfall of the old regime o^hnnks in 1865 can hardly be deemed a banking fail- 
ure proper. The banks had simply gone out of their line into the business of 



Banks and Banking. 367 



government and on the downfall of the government of which they had become 
mere adjuncts fell like the governing authority itself. Even in this fall some 
passed away honorably, redeeming in whole or part their bills. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

CHURCHES. 

Early Religious Discrimination in Georgia— Establishment of Religious Freedom— The 
Colony Divided into Parishes— Church of England Established— Parish of St. Paul— Augusta's 
First Clergyman— Rectors of St. Paul's Church— Worshipers Required to Carry Fire-arms to 
Church— St. Paul's Burned in the Revolution— A New Church Built— The Protestant Episco- 
pal Society Incorporated— St. Paul's Rebuilt— St. Paul's Ancient Tombs— Church of the 
Atonement— The Presbyterian Churches— History of the First Presbyterian— Originally called 
Christ Church— Incorporated in 1808— List of Pastors— The Telfair Building— A Model Sun- 
day-school—Changes in Charter— The Pew Law— Who is a Worshiper— Baptist Churches— 
The Old Kioka Church— Daniel Marshall's Grave— First Baptist Church Incorporated in 1809 
Reincorporated in 1817— Building Completed in 1819-List of Pastors— Second Baptist Church 
Incorporated in i860— The Baptist Convention— Methodist Church— Early Difficulties— " The 
Weeping Prophet "—St. John's Established in 1 801— Rev. John Garvin. Its Finst Pastor— His 
Distinguished Successors— St. James Built in 1855- Other Methodist Churches— Early Catho- 
lics—Catholic Society Incorporated in 181 1— The First Church— Diocese of Georgia Created 
in 1850— List of Bishops-St. Mary's Convent Established in 1853— Consecration of St. Pat- 
rick's Church in 1862— Father Duggan and Other Pastors -Sacred Heart Church Built in 1874 
—Sacred Heart Academy in 1876 -The Franciscan Sisters -The Christian Church— The 
Lutheran Church— The Synagogue— The Unitarian Society-Colored Churches— Quaint Ob- 
servances—Young Men's Christian Association— Ministerial Association— Libera? Religious 
Sentiment. 

BY the charter of Georgia it was provided " that forever hereafter there 
shall be a liberty of conscience allowed in the worship of God to all per- 
sons inhabiting, or which shall Jnhabit or be resident within our said province, 
and that all such persons, except Papists, shall have a free exercise of religion, 
so they be contented with the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of the same, not 
giving offence or scandal to the government." 

By the sixth article of the first State Constitution of Georgia, as adopted 
on February 5, 1777, it was provided that no person should be eligible to be 
a member of the House of Representatives unless, among other qualifications, 
he were "of the Protestant religion," but in 1789 when the second constitution 
of the State was adopted it was specifically provided that "all persons shall have 
the free exercise of religion," and thus the faith of the Scottish Highlanders 



368 History of Augusta. 

who saved the infant colony at the battle of Bloody Marsh with the Spaniards, 
and of the French auxiliaries who poured out their blood before Savannah was 
put upon a footing of legal equality in Georgia with all other creeds. 

The discrimination against Catholics was not, however, the only governmen- 
tal interference with matters of religion in Georgia's early days, for while the 
charter established religious liberty for all but Catholics, both the Colonial and 
home government lent their influence in favor of the Church of England. 
Upon the cessation of the proprietary government and the erection of the 
province into a King's government, one of the first acts of the Colonial Assem- 
bly was to divide it into parishes and provide for the support of Episcopal wor- 
ship therein. In 1758 the province was laid off into eight parishes named re- 
spectively the parishes of Chri?t Church, St. Matthew, St. George, St. Paul, 
St. Philip, St. John, St. Andrew, and St. James. What had been the district 
of Augusta became the parish of St. Paul, and it was provided that from and 
after March 17, 1758, "the church erected in the town of Augusta with the 
cemetery or burial place thereto belonging, shall be the parish church and 
burial place of St. Paul." For the management of the parish many regula- 
tions were made, it being the avowed purpos-i of the act to establish the 
Church of England as the governmental faith, as appears by the title of the 
statute which reads as follows: "An act for constituting and dividing the sev- 
eral districts and divisions of the province into parishes, and for establishing 
religious worship therein, according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church 
of England ; and also for empowering the churchwardens and vestrymen of 
the respective parishes to assess rates for the repair of churches, the relief of 
the poor, and other parochial services." Vestrymen and churchwardens were 
to be selected and sworn to the faithful performance of their duties. For the 
purpose of keeping the church edifice in repair, for the care of the appurtenant 
cemetery, sacred utensils, and ornaments, to provide bread and wine for the 
Holy Eucharist, to pay the salaries of clerk and sexton and to assist the poor 
and impotent of the parish, the rector, churchwardens, and vestrymen were 
empowered to levy a tax on the estate real and personal of all the inhabitants 
within the parish sufficient to yield annually the sum of thirty pounds. With 
the rector, churchwardens, and vestrymen rested the authority of appointing 
sextons and of regulating their salaries and fees. The rector was to be one of 
the vestry, and the churchwardens were instructed, at the charge of the parish, 
to procure a well bound paper or parchment book wherein the vestry clerk 
was to " register the births, christenings, marriages, and burials of all and 
every person and persons that shall from time to time be born, christened, 
married or buried within the said parish, under the penalty t)f five pounds sterl- 
ing on failure thereof" Such registers were to be adjudged and accepted in 
all courts of record in the province as furnishing sufficient proof of the births, 
marriages, christenings, and burials therein recorded. If any party was con- 



Churches of Augusta. 369 



victed of " wilfully making or causing to be made any false entry therein," or 
of " wilfully erasing, altering or defacing an entry, or of embezzling any entry 
or book of record, he was to be adjudged guilty of a felony and to be punished 
with death without benefit of clergy." The vestry was instructed to nominate 
a proper person to keep a record of its proceedings, and to act as the custodian 
of its books and papers. No authority was conferred upon rectors to exercise 
any ecclesiastical jurisdiction or to administer ecclesiastical law. 

But, to quote Colonel C. C. Jones, the great authority in Georgia on all 
matters of Colonial history, " while the patronage of the Crown and the favor 
of the Colonial assembly were extended in this special manner in aid of 
churches professing the Episcopal faith, it was not the purpose of this act to 
sustain them by exclusive recognition. This would have involved a violation 
of the privileges originally promulgated in the charter granted to the trustees. 
The idea appeared to be to accord to that denomination, within the limits of 
Georgia, a preference akin to that which the Church of England enjoyed within 
the Realm, to create certain offices for the encouragement of that religious per- 
suasion and the extension of the Gospel in accordance with its form of worship 
and mode of government, and to describe a method by which faithful registers 
of births, marriages, christenings, and deaths might be made and perpetuated. 
Numerous were the dissenters then in the province. They were represented 
by Presbyterians, Lutherans, Congregationalists, Methodists, Anabaptists, 
and a few Hebrews. To all sects, save Papists, was free toleration accorded, 
and wherever a dissenting congregation organized and applied for a grant of 
land whereon to build a church, the petition did not pass unheeded. There 
can be no doubt, however, but that it was the intention of the government, 
both Royal and Colonial, to engraft the Church of England upon the province 
and within certain limits, to advance its prosperity and ensure its permanency. 
At the same time a loyal adherence to its rubrics was in no wise made a condi- 
tion precedent to political preferment." 

While Augusta was laid out in 1735 it was not until 175 i that it had stated 
religious services or a regular pastor. About that time a number of the prin- 
cipal inhabitants forwarded a memorial to the " Society for the Propagation of 
the Gospel in foreign parts," setting forth their spiritual needs, and asking as- 
sistance. It appears that as an earnest of their disposition they built a church 
near the fort on the Savannah River, the location of which is supposed, and 
probably with entire correctness, to be on or near the site of the present St. 
Paul's Church ; and agreed to build a parsonage, set apart a glebe, and raise 
a salary of twenty pounds per annum if a clergyman were sent there. Rev. 
Jonathan Copp. a native of Connecticut and graduate of Yale, who had been 
ordained by Dr. Sherlock, the famous Bishop of London, was selected to go 
as a missionary to Augusta, then the furthest point in Georgia, to which the 
Church of England had penetrated, and about 175 i entered on his ministry 



370 History of Augusta. 



with joy and hope. According to Colonel Jones : " Although he found a 
congregation numbering one hundred souls, with eight communicants, there 
was no parsonage, the glebe land lay uncultivated, and there appeared but little 
hope of collecting the twenty pounds offered by the committee. He con- 
tinued to labor in this isolated field with indifferent success and in extreme 
poverty, for some five years ; when, utterly disappointed and disheartened, he 
accepted the rectorship of St. Jolin's Parish in South Carolina, where he died 
in 1762." 

Some eight years after Mr. Copp's removal, the Rev. Samuel Prink was 
sent out by the Society. He reported the population of Augusta at that time 
as 540 whites, 501 slaves, and 90 Chickasaw Indians. Mr. Prink labored until 
1767, when he was succeeded by Rev. Edward Ellington. In 1768 this zeal- 
ous and faithful rector reported that St. Paul's Church was the only place of 
worship within one hundred miles of Augusta. His exertions, as appears from 
the society's reports, were most strenuous and praiseworthy. He generally 
left home on Monday, traveled thirty or forty miles and preached at three 
different places about ten miles apart during the week, and returned on Friday 
for the next Sunday's services. During his three years' service he traveled 
over three thousand miles to minister to his scattered flock, baptised 428 per- 
sons, mostly children, married sixty-two couples, and raised the number of 
communicants to forty. After Mr. Ellington's departure in 1770 it was a num- 
ber of years before we find trace of any clergyman in Augusta. The times 
seemed to be portentous of the storm about to break in the Revolutionary 
War, and from an act of this year, 1770, the performance of divine service 
seems not unattended with peril. The act is entitled "an act for the better se- 
curity of the inhabitants by obliging the white male persons to carry fire-arms 
to places of public worship," and provides that every such person liable to 
militia duty shall on " resorting on any Sunday or other times, to any church, 
or other places of divine worship within the parish where such person shall re- 
side, shall carry with him a gun, or a pair of pistols, in good order and fit for 
service, with at least six charges of gunpowder and ball, and shall take the 
said gun or pistols with him to the pew or seat where such person shall sit, 
remain, or be, within or about the said church or place of worship, under the 
penalty of ten shillings for every neglect of the same, to be recovered by war- 
rant of distress and sale of the offender's goods," one-half the fine to go to the 
churchwardens and the other to the informer. The churchwardens of each 
parish, and the deacons, elders, or select men of other places of worship were 
to examine every male person attending such church on Christmas and Easter, 
and on twelve other times during the year to see if he was so armed, and if 
not, such officials if not lodging information of the fact in fifteen days were to 
forfeit the sum of five pounds ; any person declining to allow examination of 
his weapons was to forfeit ten shillings. 



Churches of Augusta. 371 



Then the Revolutionary War came on. Augusta was the scene of a bloody 
border warfare and the voice of religion seemed lost in the clash of arms. St. 
Paul's was burned by the British, or their loyalist allies, and in 1782 the Leg- 
islature which met in Augusta, in summing up the wrongs of Georgia, evi- 
dently refers to this heinous act in speaking of " the abandoned profligacy of 
setting torches to temples dedicated to the service of the Most High God, 
whereby they completed a violation of every right, human and divine." 

After the war one of the first cares of the Legislature was to rehabilitate 
the interests of religion in Augusta, and by act of 1783 certain commissioners 
were appointed to sell the town lots of that city and out of the proceeds to 
erect on one of the best lots " a church or house of worship to the Divine Be- 
ing by whose blessing the independence of the United States has been estab- 
lished." A new St. Paul's was accordingly erected on the site of the old one 
in 1786. Three years later the governor was empowered on the application 
of any religious society then erected to grant the petitioners a charter of in- 
corporation on the same terms as those granted Christ Church in Savannah, 
which provided for the election annually on Easter Monday of two church- 
wardens and seven vestrymen. It does not appear that the Episcopalians of 
Augusta availed themselves of this act, but it seems that Rev. Mr. Boyd offi- 
ciated for them for some ten years after the building of the second St. Paul's. 

For some twenty years after this, the Episcopalians of Augusta appear to 
have been unable to support a rector, and no mention appears of their denom- 
ination, but in 1 8 16 John Milledge, John Carter, Valentine Walker, George 
Walton, Thomas Watkins, Richard Tubman, Edward F. Campbell, Augustine 
Slaughter, Freeman Walker, Joseph Hutchinson, William M. Cowles, John A. 
Barnes, Milledge Galphin, and Patrick Carnes were incorporated as " the trus- 
tees of the Protestant Episcopal Society in the city of Augusta and county of 
Richmond." The trustees of Richmond Academy were directed to convey 
them an acre of ground for the erection of a church. The act required that 
three pews in the church should be reserved for the use of strangers, and pro- 
vided that no one residing out of the county should be eligible to be a trustee. 
Under this act a third St. Paul's Church was erected on the site of the first. 
This building still stands. It was completed in 1820 and consecrated by 
Bishop Bowen, of South Carolina, on March 20, 1821. Pending the erection 
of the edifice Rev. Hugh Smith was called to the rectorate and officiated from 
18 19 to 183 1. On the removal of Mr. Smith, Rev. P^dward Eugene Ford be- 
came rector in April, 1832, and for more than thirty years served faithfully in 
his high vocation. Dr. Ford died on Christmas Eve, 1862, and was buried 
beneath the altar. A handsome memorial tablet in the church records his long 
service and many virtues. He was succeeded by Rev. William H. Clarke, 
who also died in harness, departing this life in January, 1877. Mr. Clarke was 
succeeded by Rev. Chauncey C. Williams, the present rector. In seventy years 



l-ji - History of Augusta. 



St. Paul's has, therefore, had but four rectors. For many years, and in fact, up 
to the opening of the present city cemetery, St. Paul's cliurchyard was the com- 
mon burial place of Augusta, and in the yard may be seen the tombs of those 
of all denominations. Many of the monuments are very old. Here lies Oliver 
Bowen, the commodore of the American Navy in the Revolution. William Long- 
street, inventor of the steamboat, is also interred here, as also Marshall Forsyth, 
father of the celebrated John Forsyth, and a soldier of the Revolution and mem- 
ber of the Order of the Cincinnati, the insignia of which are sculptured on his 
tomb. A nephew of General Washington, who came south for his health and 
died in Augusta, and several of the French refugees from San Domingo, and 
one of the exiles from Ireland, in consequence of the rising of '98, are also buried 
beneath the shadow of St. Paul's. Rev. Mr. Clarke, rector, and General Polk, 
an Episcopal bishop, are interred here. An act of 1818 recites that from time 
immemorial that lot in Augusta bounded north by the river, east by Washing- 
ton street, south by Reynolds street, and west by lands of Jacob Danforth, had 
been used as a burial place and conveys the same to the trustees of the Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church of the City of Augusta so long as the same was used as 
a place of interment and for the site of a church, but on failure to devote the 
same to such purposes, to revert to the State. A walk in this ancient ceme- 
tery is full of interest. This gravejard was formerly larger than it is, the 
western part having been used for the interment of slaves, but in 1826 an act 
of the Legislature authorized the sale of that part, the proceeds to go to the 
vestry, on the remains being removed and carefully interred in the new col- 
ored cemetery and a brick wall being built on the line formerly divid ng the 
white and colored burial grounds. This wall is still to be seen and marks the 
western limit of the white portion of the original cemetery. 

The Church of the Atonement is a handsome Episcopal edifice on the 
corner of Telfair and Kollock streets. It is built in the form of a cross and is 
covered with ivy, presenting an antique and picturesque appearance, thou<^h of 
modern date. 

The Presbyterian Church in Augusta is said to date from 1804, and the 
present organization may possibly only go back that far, but there are evidences 
that this denomination, or one closely allied to it. is of older date. As far back 
as 1796 we find that the trustees of the town of Augusta were directed to con- 
vey a one-acre lot for the erection of a church thereon to Cornelius Dysart, 
Samuel Jack, Dennis Smelt, Isaac Herbert, James Pearre, John Springer, and 
Moses Waddel, who were incorporated as " the trustees of the Augusta Meet- 
ing House." From a still older act we gather that this was a Congregational 
Church, but it does not appear that a building was erected. 

Returning to the Presbyterian Church, there was a congregation of that 
denomination in Augusta in 1804, with Rev. Washington McKnight as pastor. 
In 1805, on the death of Mr. McKnight, Rev. John R. Thompson, then rector 



Churches of Augusta. 373 

of the Richmond Academy, was called to the charge on July 3, 1806, and 
served acceptably to his death in 1816. Up to the lime of Mr. Thompson's 
incumbency the church had three ruling elders, but three more were then 
added, Messrs. Oswell Eve, Thomas Gumming, and Augustus Moore. The 
church was at that time called " St. Paul's Church," from the fact that they 
then worshiped in the second St. Paul's Church which was rented them by the 
trustees of Richmond Academy, the Episcopal organization, as has been stated 
being in abeyance from about 1796 to 1816, and St. Paul's being used for other 
denominations. 

The system of renting being uncertain and the congregation increasing, the 
members subscribed fur the erection of a church of their own, and nominated 
John Taylor, James Pearre, John Wilson, sr., Thomas Gumming, John Camp- 
bell, John B. Barnes, and William White as trustees, who were incorporated by 
act of December 16, 1808, as "trustees of Christ Church in the city of Au- 
gusta." The act provided that these trustees should remain in office until Jan- 
uary I, 1 8 10, on which day, and on the first day of January annually there- 
after, the congregation was to elect seven trustees, none to be eligible if resid- 
ing out of the county. Until the new church was built the congregation was 
to meet in St. Paul's. The act further provided that the trustees of Richmond 
Academy should cr>nvey to the church trustees that lot of land in Augusta, 
then on the commons, bounded " on the north by Telfair street, on the east by 
the road leading from Washington street to Savannah, on the west by Mcln- 
tosli street, and on the south by a line to be drawn parallel to and distant from 
Telfair street aforesaid, three hundred feet." 

On the passage of this act the congregation met and appointed Messrs. John 
Murray, David Reed, Robert Creswell, Oswell Eve, and Ferdinand Phinizy as a 
building committee. The corner-stone was laid on July 4, 1809, by Dr. John 
Mundy, in the presence of the trustees and congregation of the church, the 
trustees of Richmond Academy, the city officials, and a large concourse of cit- 
izens. The building was completed in 18 12, and dedicated on the 17th of May 
in that year, the spire being added in 18 18. 

After Mr. Thompson's death in 18 16 the pastorate was vacant till February 
6, 1820, when Rev. Mr. Moderwel was called to the charge and remained till 
July 16, 1826, at which time Rev. Drs. Davis and Talmage officiated conjointly 
for about a year. Then Dr. Talmage was pastor till 1835 when he accepted a 
call to Oglethorpe University, and the pulpit was vacant till May, 1837, when 
Rev. A. N. Cunningham was called and served till 1842, when he was suc- 
ceeded by Rev. C. S Dod, who resigned a few years after. In 1867 Rev. Eb- 
enezer P. Rogers became pastor, and after him Rev. James R. Wilson, D.D., 
who resigned in 1870 to accept the chair of pastoral theology in the seminary 
at Columbia. In November, 1870, Rev. Dr. Robert Irvine was called from 
Knox's Church, Montreal, Canada, who remained till his death, in 1883. Dr. 



374 History of Augusta. 



Irvine was a man of great learning, eloquence, and power, of fine personal 
presence and high executive ability. During his pastorate three new Pres- 
byterian churches were erected, the Riverside Chapel on Bay street, the Sec- 
ond Presbyterian, a handsome edifice on Upper Green street, and Sibley Church 
on Upper Broad. The Sabbath-schools largely increased, and number some 
five hundred scholars. At the same time the church membership was in- 
creased to three hundred and five. A handsome marble monument to Dr. Ir- 
vine, surmounted by a statue of him, heroic size, in his robes, now stands close 
by the church. 

The grounds have been further beautified by the Telfair building, justly 
claimed to be the best, the finest, the most beautiful and convenient Sunday- 
school building in the United States. 

Miss Mary Telfair, of Savannah, a wealthy old maiden lady, died leaving a 
bequest of $30,000 " to the Presbyterian Church of Augusta, bearing her 
name, to erect a suitable and commodious Sunday-school house and library." 
On the 25th of April, 1883, the money was paid to Mr. Alfred Baker, chair- 
man of the board of trustees. The plans were made by Mr. Jacob Snyder, of 
Akron, O., a church architect, with the light of suggestions from Mr. J. W. 
Wallace, the sixth superintendent of this Sunday-school, who has held his place 
for twenty years. On the 6th of August, 1 883, the building was contracted for. 

The corner-stone was laid in September, 1883, and work begun. Mr. Baker 
resigned in January, 1884, and General M. A. Stovall suceeded him as presi- 
dent of the board, directing the construction, at the head of a building commit- 
tee, consisting of George T. Jackson, W. F. Alexander, J. A. North, and John 
D. Butt. The building was completed, and on Sunday, June 22d, 1884, it was 
dedicated by imposing ceremonies. 

It has been put up after the pattern of several successfully operated halls, 
and is an improvement upon each, and finer than them all. The great diffi- 
culty with Sunday-schools heretofore has been to separate the different depart- 
ments and cl.isses during the time for instruction, and yet save time and pre- 
vent confusion upon the reassembling of classes, as well as to economize space 
in providing for these changes. " Complete separation," says an experienced 
authority, " where teacher shall be brought face to face with his class, yet 
union, speedy and quiet, together with capacity to accommodate each member 
of the school, was the problem." The Sunday-school room is the largest and 
central room in this new building, and is most spacious and finished and in- 
genious in its arrangement. 

The superintendent's desk is in the center of the semi-circle, and the level 
space in front of him is filled with walnut chairs, while back of these, in easy 
view of the superintendent, yet separated from each other by walls and sash 
doors, are the different compartments for the intermediate and primary classes. 
The seats for the smaller children are arranged tier upon tier, resembling 



Churches of Augusta. 375 

"gently sloping hillsides " encircling the teacher. The doors closed, the class 
is entirely to itself, without the danger of interference from the outside ; a sig- 
nal from the superintendent, however, the doors are opened, and that officer 
stands as the easy focus of every eye. This spacious Sunday-school auditorium 
occupies the height of two stories, and is fifty-three feet by forty- five in length 
and breadth, and twenty-eight feet in pitch. Over the lower class rooms are 
symmetrical Bible class apartments, similarly opened and closed, and all within 
easy sight of the superintendent's desk. From the second story a balcony pro- 
jects, which is reached by half spiral steps from the vestibules below, and which 
is arranged in tiers for the accommodation of visitors, so ordered, however, 
that the view of the second story class-rooms is not obstructed from the su- 
perintendent. The plan of one central or main room connected with two sto- 
ries of radiating class-rooms, made radiating to secure a mutual view between 
the occupants of the superintendent's platform and those of the twelve radiat- 
ing class-rooms, is a capital one, and affords exceptional advantages for officers 
and pupils. Both the intermediate and infant class-rooms down stairs have a 
separate staircase from the outside, and these lower apartments will accommo- 
date two hundred and ten children. The Bible-class rooms up stairs enable 
older children and adults to enjoy quiet for their meetings and exercises, 
and yet give them the advantage, if not the publicity, of the song and prayer 
service of the whole school. This main room is elegantly ventilated from the 
cupola overhead, and four arched windows of colored cathedral glass, with 
the light of the class-rooms, furnish sufficient sunshine for the afternoon or 
morning exercises. The room is beautifully finished. The ceiling is a delicate 
blue, upon which the projecting oak work of the Elizabethan style is massive 
and elegant. The walls are cream color, the carpets bright, and the oak and 
bronze railing of the gallery is very handsome. Upon the walls of the main 
room is the inscription, " and they search the Scriptures daily whether those 
things were so." Back of the superintendent's stand is a marble tablet with 
the words, "held in grateful remembrance, Mary Telfair, of Savannah, through 
whose munificent bequest has this edifice been erected and furnished." 

The front room on the first floor, reached upon entering the building from 
the vestibule, is the lecture-room, richly carpeted, with trim little pulpit, con- 
fronted by comfortable . mahogany chairs. The pitch of this room is twenty- 
eight feet, and its dimensions are thirty-six by tliirty feet. It is large enough, 
and yet as cosy and finished as an office. On the right is the Sunday-school 
library, through which the scholars will pass in entering the main room, and 
change their books. This is twenty- five by twelve feet; it is well supplied, and 
contains cells for three thousand books. To the left of the lecture-room is the 
pastor's library, study and office, a counterpart to the library, where the pastor 
will have his headquarters. Upstairs, over the lecture-room, is the ladies' so- 
ciety room, thirty-six by thirty feet, elegantly fitted up and supplied with toilet- 
rooms and kitchen, designed for church entertainments, charity suppers, etc. 



376 History of Augusta. 



Taste, ingenuity, experience, care and money have been expended without 
stint to make the structure what it is confessedly, the finest and most complete 
in the country. The inside is of pure cathedral architecture; the outside is of 
solid and symmetric Gothic build. There are in this beautiful structure ninety- 
six windows, and the building is illuminated at night with one hundred and fifty 
gas burners. The chairs are moveable and are solid walnut; the glasses are 
colored cathedral style ; the rooms are warmed w ith furnaces, and the mantels 
are exquisite stone pieces. The building cost throughout $32,000. 

As originally incorporated this church was called Christ Church, but by 
act of December 29. 1836, this name was changed to First Presbyterian 
Church in Augusta, by which it has since been known ; the act also required 
the election of trustees on the first of January annually. In 1859 anoth ^r act 
was passed which minutely regulates the matter of pews, and rights of pew- 
holders. It provides that the trustees may call a meeting of pew- holders at 
any time on one week's notice in any city paper and oral notice from the pul- 
pit on the Sunday before the meeting; that at such meeting, which shall be 
held in the church or at the lecture room, each pew-holder shall have one vote, 
in person or by proxy, and that all assessments made at such meetings shall 
be binding on all pew- holders and may be collected by law. It further pro- 
vides that if any pew-holder be in arrears for two years' annual assessment, the 
trustees may, by resolution entered in the minutes, declare such pew forfeited, 
and it shall tiiereupon revert to the church, or if the trustees so elect the pew 
may be sold by execution issued on judgment obtained for the amount of un- 
paid assessment, as in case of other property. All pews belonging to estates 
on which there is no representation for two years shall revert to the church, and 
no one shall vote for a deceased pew-holder except his legal representative, but 
the trustees may transfer such pew to the decedent's widow or children on 
payment of all assessments due. " All pews held by business firms or by two 
or more persons jointly," shall on the death of one joint owner rest absolutely 
in the other who shall be liable for all assessments thereon. Lastly the title 
to pews are transferable by the owners on the books of the trustees, if clear of 
assessments, and not otherwise. These provisions forjn a more complete body 
of ecclesiastical law on this subject than can be found as respects any other 
denomination in Georgia. The same act empowers the trustees to convey and 
dispose of any real estate theretofore or thereafter conveyed them unless ex- 
pressly prohibited by the terms of the grant. 

By an act of February 21, 1850, the trustees are empowered to take and 
hold land for a parsonage and a missionary church, to be under the care of the 
parent church. 

By act of December 21, 1866, the charter was again amended so as to pro- 
vide for the election of nine trustees instead of seven, three for one year, three 
for two, and three for three years, so as to elect but three each year to hold 



Churches of Augusta. 377 



three years ; those who had filled one term not to be re- eligible till the expira- 
tion of one year. In 1870 it was enacted that the trustees should elect three 
persons to be pew-owners and residents of Richmond county, for terms of one, 
two, and three years respectively as an endowment committee, to receive and 
hold all church property with power to invest same, holding proceeds to use 
of the trustees, and to make annual reports, but in 1876 this act was repealed 
and the management of the church property left with the trustees as be- 



ore. 



By an act passed in 1825, Timothy Edwards, M. M. Payne, Joseph Hutch- 
inson, Robert Thomas, and James Primrose were incorporated as "the trus- 
tees of the Harrisburoh Presbyterian Church in the village of Harrisburgh and 
county of Richmond." The act provides that the succeeding trustees were to 
be elected annually on the first Saturday in March " by the worshipers in the 
church," and then proceeded to define that language by saying "those shall be 
considered worshipers who attend divine service there twelve Sabbaths during 
the year." 

The Baptist denomination is numerically the most powerful in Georgia, and 
in and about Augusta its history extends back over one hundred years. As 
far back as 1789 an act of the Legislature states that " a religious society has 
for many years past been established on the Kioka, in the county of Richmond, 
called and known by the name of the Anabaptist Church, on the Kioka," and 
incorporates Abraham Marshall, William Willingham, Edmund Cartledge, 
John Landers, James Simms, Joseph Ray, and Lewis Gardner as "the trustees 
of the Anabaptist Church on the Kioka." This church was originally estab- 
lished in 1773 by Rev. Daniel Marshall. 

The name Anabaptist was subsequently changed to Baptist and for many 
years after 1789, this old-time congregation met and worshiped in a church 
building on the side of the road leading from Augusta to Appling, the county 
seat of Columbia county, after that was cut oft" from Richmond county. The 
building has long since disappeared but a venerable tree on the left hand side 
of the road within some hundred yards of the court-house at Appling is still 
pointed out as having shaded the old church. Rev. Daniel Marshall, said by 
tradition to have been the first Baptist preacher in Georgia, for many years 
ministered in the Kioka Church, and just across the road from the site of the 
edifice his grave is still to be seen, a square mound of rock being his monu- 
ment. The act incorporating the church provided that the trustees should 
hold office for three years, and that on the third Saturday in November in 
every third year " the supporters of the Gospel in said church should convene 
at the meeting-house, and there between the hours of ten and four should elect 
from among such supporters seven discreet persons to be trustees." An act of 
1 801 provided that the trustees should fill any vacancy in their ranks, and that 
the congregation might fix the time of the general election at their pleasure. 



^7^ History of Augusta. 



A few years after another church was established by act of December 5, 1806 
at Red's Creek, and Loveless Savage, James Simms, Archibald Odom, David 
Walker, and John Collier were granted a charter as " The Incorporated Red's 
Creek Baptist Church." 

By act of December 2, 1809, the trustees of Richmond county academy 
were directed " to lay off a lot of ground between Telfair and Walker streets, 
not exceeding half a square, for the purpose of building a Baptist Church there- 
on, and to convey the same to the general committee of Georgia Baptists or to 
such persons in trust, for the purpose aforesaid, as they have or may nominate, 
to receive titles as aforesaid." It does not appear that the scheme of this act 
was carried into effect, but in 1817, and evidently through the untiring exer- 
tions of Rev. Abraham Marshall, an act was passed on December 19, " to in- 
corporate the Baptist Church in the city of Augusta and county of Richmond, 
and to authorize the trustees of the Richmond Academy to convey a lot of land 
in the city of Augusta to said Baptist Society." By this act Abraham Mar- 
shall, John McKinne, James H. Randolph, Woodson Ligon, and Jesse D. 
Green were incorporated as " The Trustees of the Baptist Society in the city of 
Augusta and county of Richmond," and empowered to have and to hold real 
and personal property for the purpose of erecting a house of worship for said 
society in the city of Augusta and maintaining a minister of the Gospel for the 
same. To provide a site, the trustees of the academy were directed to lay off 
and convey to said trustees a one-acre lot in the city, where they might deem 
proper. In 18 18 all the church societies in Augusta were authorized to sell 
such parts of their lots as they might deem proper, the proceeds to be devoted 
to church purposes. 

In 1819 the First Baptist Church was organized in Augusta and located on 
the corner of Greene and Jackson streets, where it still stands. The building 
cost $22,000, and the funds for its erection were mainly secured by the efforts 
of Rev. Dr. William T. Brantly, the first pastor, who at the time of the organi- 
zation was rector of the Richmond Academy. The congregation at that time 
did not number over twenty all told, and but few of those were able to con- 
tribute anything towards the erection of the building, but their brother Bap- 
tists throughout the State, with their proverbial zeal and liberality, came to 
the rescue. By 1826 the church had increased and prospered to an extent 
which allowed it to give a ministerial stipend of $1,200. Rev. James Shand 
became Dr. Brantly's successor in the pastorate and served three years, when 
he resigned to accept the chair of ancient languages in the University of 
Georgia. Rev. Charles D. Mallary then became pastor and remained five 
years, the church in his time numbering one hundred and twenty-five members. 
Rev. W. J. Hard, at one time professor in Mercer University and for many 
years a well-known teacher in Augusta, was the next pastor, and was suc- 
ceeded by Rev. W. T. Brantly, jr., son of the founder of the church who min 



Churches of Augusta. 379 



istered for seven years, resigning to become professor of belle-lettres in the 
State University. The other pastors have been Rev. N. G. Foster, Rev. Mr. 
Gillette, Rev. Dr. J. G. Binney, who was twice in charge and subsequently be- 
came president of the Missionary College at Rangoon, Rurmah ; Rev. Dr. 
Ryerson succeeded, and then came Rev. A. J. Huntington, D D., who re- 
moved to become professor in Columbia College, District of Columbia. Rev. 
J. H. Cuthbert, D.D., who subsequently became pastor of the first Baptist 
Church in Washington, D. C, and Rev. Drs. James Dixon and M. B. Whar- 
ton succeeded. Then came Rev. William Warren Landrum, who was suc- 
ceeded by the present able and eloquent pastor Dr. Lansing Burrows. The 
church now numbers over four hundred members. The building has been 
remodeled and is now an exceedingly handsome edifice and has a magnificent 
organ. A new lecture room, the finest in the city, has been built on Jackson 
street just in rear of the church at a cost of $10,000. 

Just before the outbreak of the war the denomination had increased in 
Augusta to an extent which called for another church, and by act of Decem- 
ber 8, i860, Henry J. Sibley, Samuel A. Verdery, Daniel B. Plumb, James 
Hill, David R. Wright, and Richard Timmerman were incorporated as the 
Second Baptist Church, Kollock street, Augusta, Georgia, and made trustees 
for life of the church. Since then three other Baptist Churches have been 
erected, the First Ward or Calvary Baptist Church, on Lower Greene street, 
Curtis Baptist Church on Upper Broad, and the Berean Church in Harris- 
burgh. 

In 1830 an act "to incorporate the Baptist Convention of the State of 
Georgia " was passed which provided that Jesse Mercer, m.oderator ; Abiel 
Sherwood, clerk; J. P. Marshall, assistant clerk; James Armstrong, B. M. San- 
ders, Jonathan Danis, and Thomas Stocks, the then executive committee of the 
convention, and their successors in office, should be a body corporate as " the 
Executive Committee of the Baptist Convention of the State of Georgia," with 
power to hold all property of the convention and receive donations and be- 
quests made thereto. In 1837 this act was so am.ended as to withdraw any 
taxing power from the committee or convention, if such it had under the act 
of 1830, legislation which seems rather anomalous and obscure. The same act 
authorized the committee to establish the now famous Mercer University. 

The Methodist Church found difficulty in establishing itself in other por- 
tions of Georgia, but its early ministers met encouragement and support in and 
around Augusta. In 1786 in the Virginia Conference mention was made of 
Georgia as a missionary ground and several zealous clergymen volunteered to 
plant the faith there. Two of them. Rev. Thomas Humphries and John Ma- 
jor were accepted and soon formed a circuit about Augusta, extending up the 
Savannah as far as Little River and in the interior to Washington, in Wilkes 
county. Several churches were formed in a short time with an aggregate 



38o History of Augusta. 



membersliip of four luiiulrcd. Mr. M;ijor was particularly active, and frcjni his 
plaintive style of preaching received the name of " the Weeping Prophet." 
It is a notable fact that in the early stages of Methodism it encountered much 
opposition in the towns and it was not until 1799, or some thirteen years after 
the advent of the first clergymen of this denomination in Georgia that a Meth- 
odist Church was formed in Augusta under the leadership of Stith Mead. In 
the same year Rev. John Garvin, of Augusta, entered the ministry and sought 
to establish a Methodist Church in Savannah, the third attempt in this direc- 
tion. In 1790 Rev. Mope Hull visited that place but met opposition and was 
even threatened with mob violence. In 1796 Rev. Jonathan Jackson and Josiah 
Randle attempted to make converts but failed. Then Mr. Garvin essayed the 
task in 1800 and made some slight progress, but the difficulty of holding to- 
gether his small society was so great that he also abandoned the attempt and 
it was not until 1807 th.it Methodism obtained a footing in Savannah. On his 
return from that stubborn field Rev. Mr. Garvin became pastor of the Augusta 
congregation and in 1801 the meeting house was built on the site of the pres- 
ent St. John's Church. Owing to the rule; of the Methodist discipline which 
changes pastors at frequent intervals, it is impracticable to give a full list ot 
all the clergymen who in the lapse of some ninety years have officiated in St. 
John's. Suffice it to say that many of the most-illustrious names in the history 
of Georgia Methodism have at one time or another had this venerable church 
in charge. Among them may be mentioned in addition to the pioneers Rev. 
John Garvin and Ilo[)e I lull, Lovick Pierce, Dunwoody, Bishop Andrew, and 
Bishop Pierce. In 1844 when the latter, then Rev. George F. Pierce, was in 
charge the present brick building was erected. F'rom St. John's as a center 
went out many other congregations so that the old church is affectionately 
known in the denomination as the mother of churches. 

In 1885 St. James Church was built to accommodate the increascil mem- 
bershi[) and has had since its organization the following pastors; Rev. William 
M. Crumley, E. W. Spcer, Thomas Jordon, W. V. Cook, A. T. Mann, Lovick 
Pierce, II. J. Adams, George R. Kramer. G. II. Patillo, II. II. Parks, J. E. 
Evans, A. J. Jarrell, S P. Richardson, C. A. P2vans, W. T. Gibson, and J. II. 
Bigham. The membership is about six hundred. 

In 1859 Asbury Church was established and since then four others have 
been organized, the Broad Street Church, Jones' Chapel, St. Luke's Church, 
and Wesleyan Chapel. 

Up to 1849 ^t. John's had a large colored membership which in that year 
was formed into Trinity Church, and since then four other colored Methodist 
congregations have been organized, namely Bethel Church, St. Mark's Church, 
Mount Zion Church, and Ilolsey Chapel. 

Among the first settlers of Augusta we find Kennedy O'Bryan. William 
Callahan, Faley and McQuen, Lachlan McBeau, and John Campbell, whose 



Churches of Augusta. 381 



Scotch and Irish names betray their Erse and Celtic origin, and inferentially 
their CathoHc faith. In 1770 Daniel M'Murphey appears as a resident of Au- 
gusta and one of the board of town commissioners. In 179 1 James Toole is a 
commissioner, but it is not until about the close of the eighteenth century that 
any considerable number of Catholics were found in the city. At that time 
the rising of '98 in Ireland and the contemporaneous insurrection of the blacks, 
in San Domingo drove many Irish and French refugees, particularly the latter, 
to Augusta and Savannah. Tradition reports that as early as 1 800 they es- 
tablished a place of worship, but it was not until 181 1 that a regular church 
was erected. In that year James Toole, Bernard Bignon, James Bertrand La- 
fitte, Francis Bouyer, and John Cormack were incorporated as " the trustees 
of the Roman Catholic Society in the city of Augusta and county of Rich- 
mond," and the trustees of Richmond Academy were directed to convey to 
them that lot of land in Augusta, bounded on the north by Telfair street, on 
the east by Mcintosh street, on the south by Walker street, and on the west 
by Jackson street, for church purposes. The trustees of the church were em- 
powered to fill vacancies happening in their board, and no non-resident of the 
county was eligible to a seat. By an act of 1820 the Roman Catholic Society 
was to elect trustees annually, the board to fill intervening vacancies. 

On the passage of the act of 181 1 a small church in the form of a cross was 
erected in the center of the lot, and for half a century was the only Catholic 
Church in the city. In this building such distinguished prelates as Bishop 
England and Bishop Barry preached, and in the next quarter of a century the 
congregation largely increased. The building of the Georgia Railroad begun 
about 1835 brought a large number of Irish laborers to the city and vicinity, 
most of whom settled in Augusta after the work of construction was complete. 
The presence of the French colony attracted others of that nationality, and 
their slaves, a number of whom followed their masters from San Domingo and 
professed the Catholic faith, helped to swell the congregation. For a number 
of years before the present church was built the old building was inadequate 
to accommodate all the worshipers, and at ma-s many could be seen kneeling 
outside the door and following the services from afar off as in European coun- 
tries. 

Up to the year 1850 Georgia was included in the South Carolina diocese 
and presided over by the Bishop of Charleston, but in that year Right Rever- 
end Francis Xavier Gartland, of PhiladelpluH, was appointed bishop of the new 
diocese of Savannah, which comprised the State of Georgia. In 1853, under 
the administration of this prelate, the Sisters of the Order of Our Lady of 
Mercy established a convent and academy known as St. Mary's Academy, on 
the northeast corner of the church lot, and by act of February 7, 1854, were 
incorporated under the above name "for the advancement of the cause of ed- 
ucation and charity, and the performance of acts of mercy and benevolence." 



382 History of Augusta. 



The original incorporators were Elizabeth Mahoney, Catharine McRena, and 
Rose Ann Reilly. By order of the Superior Court of Richmond county of 
May 9, 1 88 1, the sisters were given the right to confer diplomas, honors, de- 
grees, and other like marks of scholastic distinction in their academy. 

Scarcely bad the academy been instituted and Bishop Gartland began his 
administration before Augusta was devastated with the jellow fever epidemic 
of 1854. The old Catholic parsonage, which was situate in the rear of the old 
church was converted into a hospital, and here among the sick and dying 
Bishop Gartland, and Fathers Barry and Duggan, pastor and assistant pastor 
of the church, aided by the sisters, labored until the pestilence ceased. To his 
zeal the good bishop fell a victim, dying of the plague. Many were the or- 
phans left by the dread malady. The sisters cared for the little girls and Father 
Barry adopted the boys, some of whom still live as honored citizens to bless 
and revere his name. 

For three years the see was vacant, but in 1857 Father Barry was appointed 
bishop. He died in 1859, while on a visit to Rome, whence his remains were 
brought back and interred under the church. On Bishop Barry's demise. Dr. 
Verot, a professor at St. Mary's College, Baltimore, Md.. and a scholar of pro- 
found erudition, was appointed bishop, and continued such until 1870, when 
he was translated to the new diocese of St. Augustine, which covers the State 
of Flori<!a. During Bishop Verot's administration the present St. Patrick's 
Church was built. The old church had grown entirely too small for the con- 
gregation, and early in his incumbency he resolved upon a new and more ca- 
pacious edifice. The congregation subscribed liberally, and many of the poorer 
members contributed so many days labor on the building. In 1862 it was 
completed, and consecrated by Bishop Verot, Bishop Ouinlan of Mobile deliv- 
ering the sermon. Upon the translation of Bishop Verot to the new see of St. 
Augustine, the Right Reverend Ignatius Persico, bishop of Agra, in the East 
Indies, was made bishop of Savannah. His labors in the torrid clim.ate of Hin- 
dostan had injuriously affected his health, and it was expected that a change to 
a more genial air would restore him. This expectation was not realized, and 
in 1872 his resignation was accepted and he returned to his native Italy, where 
he was made bishop of Naples, formerly the see of St. Thomas, the Angelic 
Doctor. Since then he has been made archbishop of Damietta, and it is 
thought will shortly be named cardinal. 

In 1873 Father Gross, a Redemptorist, was made bishop, and continued 
such until 1885, when created archbishop of Oregon. 

Bishop Gross was succeeded on March 26, 1886, by Right Reverend 
Thomas A. Becker, the first bishop of Wilmington, Del, which see he had 
filled since 1868. Bishop Becker is one of the most learned men in the church, 
speaking several modern languages and deeply versed in the ancient tongues, 
theology, and philosophy. He is moreover a man of remarkable executive abil- 



Churches of Augusta. 



383 



ity, and under his administration the CathoHc Church has prospered wonderfully 
throughout the State. Particular exertions are made in behalf of the colored 
population, and there are priests, sisters, churches, schools, and an asylum 
specially for them. 

Of Bishop Barry's exertions while pastor of St. Patrick's, we have already 
spoken. Father Duggan, the next pastor, was a man of saintly life. With 
missionary zeal he labored incessantly for others, and himself led the life of an 
anchorite. By the most extreme and unvarying economy and self-denial he 
gathered up a fund of some eight or ten thousand ^dollars, which he left to 
build a school for youths, and St. Patrick's Commercial Institute, a very fine 
academy conducted by the Christian Brothers on the site of the old church is 
the realization of the good father's life long exertions. Father Duggan was 
succeeded by Father Kirby, whose monument is the new church. To build 
this was his hope and aspiration. The next pastor was Father Hamilton, a 
clergyman of imposing presence and most persuasive eloquence, who after some 
years faithful service removed to the diocese of Mobile and there died, la- 
mented by all. Father O'Hara, the next pastor, died shortly after Father 
Hamilton's removal, and was succeeded by Father Prendergast, a clergyman 
of very great erudition. His knowledge of the history, traditions, and coun- 
cils of the church was something wonderful, and many were the converts he 
made. He still labors with unabated zeal in other parts of the diocese. Fath- 
ers Quinlan and McNally followed, and the latter was in turn succeeded by 
the present pastor. Rev. James M. O'Brien, for many years the head of the 
famous boy's school at Washington, Ga., which has fitted so many homeless 
lads for lives of usefulness and honor. 

In 1873 additional church facilities were needed by the Catholics of Au- 
gusta, and in October, 1874, the Jesuit fathers completed the Church of 
the Sacred Heart, in the upper part of the city. In 1876 a second convent 
and academy was established by the Sisters of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy 
under the name of the Sacred Heart Convent and Academy, near the Sacred 
Heart Church. 

At a little later period another order known as the Franciscan Sisters es- 
tablished a school near Augusta for little colored girls and are doing an excel- 
lent work of charity. In addition to their care of the orphans under their 
charge, and the management of their academies, the sisters attend the City 
Hospital as nurses to the sick and injured. 

The Christian Church, or Church of the Disciples of Christ, was organized 
in Augusta in 1835. At that time there were few members and the services 
were conducted in private parlors or rented room.s, but in 1842 Mrs. Emily H. 
Tubman, a wealthy and devoted member of the congregation, erected a church 
on Reynolds street now used as a young ladies' seminary as the Tubman High 
School. The first pastor was Dr. Hook whose faithful service for several years 



384 History of Augusta. 



gave the congregation an impetus which carried it along steadily for a quarter 
of a century or more of progress until in 1873 the original building had be- 
come too sm.ill for proper accommodation. Mrs. Tubman again came for- 
ward and erected at her own expense a new and exceedingly handsome church, 
on the corner of Greene and Mcintosh streets, which was finished and occupied 
by the congregation on January, 1876. The second Christian church in the 
upper part of the city is of recent establishment. 

The Lutheran Church is one of the oldest in Georgia. As early as 1733 
a congregation of some one hundred sailed from Germany for Georgia under 
the charge of two pastors, Rev. Messrs. Bolzuis and Gronau, and though en- 
countering many vicissitudes which for years caused the faith to remain almost 
stationary, it never died out and of late years has greatly increased. In 1859 
a church was erected on Walker street, in which services are still held, and in 
1887 a second church was erected on Greene street opposite the City Hall. 
The Walker street church is styled the German Evangelic Lutheran Church, 
and services are conducted in the German tongue. In the second church the 
services are in English, and the church owes its origin to the desire of the 
younger members to have their religious exercises in a language more familiar 
to them and better calculated to reach the general public than the tongue of 
the fatherland. The same difference of opinion on the subject of the language 
in which services should be conducted was one of the decadence of the Lu- 
theran faith in the earlier days of its settlement in Georgia, but happily a re- 
vival of the discussion in later days in Augusta has had the effect of really in- 
creasing the denomination, its membership being quite strong enough to sup- 
port both kinds of congregation. 

The faith of Israel was early planted in Georgia. The second ship which 
sailed from London for the new province in 1733 brought forty Hebrews, men, 
women, and children who settled in Savannah, and very shortly after their ar- 
rival rented a house in that city where the exercises of their religion were held 
until about 1 741, when the congregation was temporarily broken up by the 
removal of many of its members to Charleston. In 1774 it was revived again 
largely owing to the efforts of Mr. Mordecai Sheftall, son of Mr. Benjamin Sheft- 
all, one of the original settlers, but was again dissolved by the Revolution. 
Mr. Mordecai Sheftall took a prominent part in this struggle and was commis- 
sary-general of the Georgia Brigade in the Continental Army, Sheftall Sheft- 
all, another member of the family, being deputy commissary. 

After the Revolution the congregation, which we should state was called 
Mickva Israel, was re-established in 1786, and for a number of years service 
was regularly performed. Then another suspension occurred and lasted till 
1820 when a synagogue was constructed which was used till accidentally 
burned in 1829. Dr. Moses Sheftall, the president of the congregation, was 
very active in rebuilding the edifice. Subscriptions were liberally made not 



Churches of Augusta. 385 

only by the congregation but many Christians, and a new synagogue was soon 
built. 

In 1854 Lewis Levy, Isaac Mayer, and Henry Myers were incorporated as 
" trustees of the permanent fund of the Children of Israel, a Jewish congre- 
gation in the city of Augusta." The fund at that time consisted chiefly of ten 
shares of the capital stock of the Franklin Building and Loan Association, and 
the trustees were directed to manage and increase the same for the improve- 
ment of the cemetery of the congregation and ultimately for the erection of a 
synagogue. At this time and for many years thereafter the congregation, 
which is known as B'nai Israel, or Children of Israel, occupied a building on 
the corner of Greene and Jackson streets, known afterwards as Douglass Hall, 
and now the site of the new Opera House. 

In 1872 a handsome synagogue was erected on Telfair street, in rear of the 
City Hall. The design is that of a Grecian temple and the interior presents a 
singularly bright and cheerful appearance. Above the entrance is in large 
gold characters the Hebrew inscription B'nai Israel. This synagogue cost 
$12,000. The present officers are Joseph Myers, president; S. Lesser, vice- 
president ; and A. Asher, I. C. Levy, and H. Brooks, trustees. One of the 
original trustees, Mr. Henry Myers, still survives, full of years and rich in the 
public respect and esteem. The confidence of his fellow- citizens has made him 
president of the Richmond County Reformatory Institute, a benevolent insti- 
tution intended for the reformation of juvenile offenders. 

Many years ago, in 1826, Alexander Cunningham, Gilbert Longstreet, 
Thomas S. Metcalf, William Sims, and Philip Crane were incorporated as 
the Unitarian Society in Augusta, Georgia, but it has been long since the 
organization has had an active existence. 

The colored churches of Augusta are quite numerous and are of the Bap- 
tist, Methodist, and Presbyterian denominations. The colored Baptist churches 
are eleven in number, namely : Antioch, Central African, Friendship, Hale 
street. Harmony, Hosannah, Macedonia, Mount Olive, Springfield, Thankful, 
and Union Church. The colored Methodist churches are five in number, 
namely : Bethel, St. Mark's, Mount Zion, and Trinity Church, and Holsey 
chapel. There is one colored Presbyterian congregation called Christ Church. 

Of these churches Springfield and Thankful have a very respectable an- 
tiquity, the former particularly. As early as 1805 the village of Springfield 
was spoken of as being a cluster of houses and a house of worship for the col- 
ored people of that day. The location of this village, now long absorbed into 
the corporate limits of Augusta, was at the intersection of Broad and Marbury 
streets, and within a few hundred feet of this point the present Springfield 
Church is situate. At the other extremity of the city is Thankful Church, much 
the junior of Springfield, but still of good age, having been built some fifty years 
ago. These churches were originally designed for the use of the slave popu- 
49 



386 History of Augusta. 



lation, and on the emancipation of their congregations have remained in their 
hands and been the fruitful centers of new congregations and new churches. 
Connected with them are some quaint, time-honored observances. At stated 
intervals there is a baptizing. There starts from the church towards the river 
a procession with the pastor, in a long white robe and leaning upon a long 
staff, at its head ; at his right hand and left are assistants similarly clad and 
equipped ; behind these comes the choir ; then the persons to be baptized, the 
men in long white gowns and tlie women in white dresses, each applicant sup- 
ported on either hand by friends of his or her sex. Then came the congre- 
gation two and two. The pastor "lines out" a hymn and the choir and con- 
gregation respond, and thus the procession wends its waj' to the river where 
the immersion takes place. 

Another curious custom is in connection with the burial of the dead. Con- 
nected with the older churches are benevolent societies, each with a distinctive 
uniform, which turn out en masse to the funeral of a deceased member. The 
feature of the uniform of the females is a cape, in some societies black with 
purple bands, in others white with black bands. Those with the black capes 
wear black dresses and black straw hats, those with white capes, white dresses 
and plain straw hats. These long processions moving along in perfect order 
and silence not infrequently present a weird appearance. The custom is of 
unknown antiquity. 

The Young Men's Ciiristian Association of Augusta has been in operation 
for a number of years and is now on a solid and prosperous basis, with attrac- 
tive rooms and a large and growing membership. Attached to it is a fine 
gymnasium, comfortably furnished reading-room and parlor, and a spacious 
lecture-room. 

The Ministerial Association of Augusta is of recent date, but a body of 
great dignity and moral weight. It is composed of divines of nearly all de- 
nominations and is intended to make common cause in the interests of moral- 
ity and religion. 

In closing this sketch of the churches and religious institutions of Augusta 
it is pleasant to refer to the spirit of charity which prevails among all. Bigotry 
and polemic asperity are all but unknown, and as a consequence the religious 
sentiment of Augusta is as mild and tolerant as it is decided, zealous, and 
sincere. 



Manufactures. 387 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MANUFACTURES. 

Eli Whitney and his Cotton Gin — Cotton Forthwith Becomes a Staple — The Inventor's 
Troubles — Law Suits, Infringements, and Hostile Legislation — Protest Against Extension of 
the Patent — Whitney's Later Inventions— His Death in 1825 — Rapid Increase in Cotton Ex- 
ports—Price Current of 1802— The Embargo Blunder — British Cotton — Heavy Customs Du- 
ties — Georgia Long Staple — Total Cotton Export in 1810— A Cotton Factory Chartered in 
1798 — Europe and the North Manufacture, While the South only Produces— Deterrent Causes 
— Another Factory Chartered in 1810— The Pioneer Southern Mill— Judge Shly's Factory — 
" The Live Spindle "—Bagging and Yarn the First Products—" The Dead Spindle "— Osna- 
burgs — The Mill Removed to Richmond County and Named Bellville — " Georgia Plains " — 
Checks and Denims Made — Bellville Factory Twice Burned — Impetus Given Southern Man- 
ufactures — Richmond Factory — Profuse and Omnipresent Water Power of Richmond County 
— Early Factories, Mills and Gins — McBean Factory — The Georgia Silk Manufacturing Com- 
pany—The Augusta Sugar Manufacturing Company — The Savannah River Utilized— Augusta 
Canal Projected— Early History of this Great Work— The Original Ordinance— The Original 
Route Named — The Ratifying Act of the Legislature — How the Money was Raised — The En- 
gineer's Report— Anti-Canal Litigation— The Canal Wins— The Enlargement in 1872-5— Di- 
mensions and Cost — Relative Cotton Manufacturing Advantages of North and South— Expert 
Testimony— The Augusta Manufacturing Company— The McBean Factory Charter— The Au- 
gusta Factory— Its Phenomenal Success — The Enterprise Factory— The Sibley Manufactur- 
ing Company —The John P. King Manufacturing Company The Riverside Mills — The War- 
wick Mills— The Algernon Mills— The Globe Mills— Work of the Augusta Factory from 1873 
to 1878— The Adjacent South Carolina Mills at Graniteville and Vancluse — The Southern and 
Western Manufacturers Association — The Lock Out of 1886— Other Manufacturing Interests 
— Georgia Chemical Works— The Guano Interest— The Augusta Ice Company of 1832— The 
Jackson Street Ice Company of i837--The Ice Factory of 1864 — The Augusta Ice Company 
— The Polar Ice Company— The Augusta Machine Works— Pendleton Machine Works— Au- 
gusta Flouring Mills — Excelsior Flouring Mills — The Lumber Interest — Brick Yards— Augusta 
as a Cotton Town— The Best Inland Center in the United States — Cotton Futures. 

TO speak of the manufactures of Augusta is to speak of cotton, and to speak 
of cotton is to recall Eli Whitney and his cotton-gin. Elsewhere in this 
work we have made some mention of this great inventor and benefactor of man- 
kind, but may here speak more fully of his biography, particularly as we shall 
find that the idea of cotton manufacturing in the South was coeval with the 
invention of the cotton gin. 

In 1793 Eli Whitney, a native of Massachusetts, and then resident in Geor- 
gia, invented the cotton-gin, /. e., the saw-gin. the roller-gin having been known 
in Hindostan under the name of " Churka," from a remote antiquity. The 
principle of the " Churka " is two rollers revolving in opposite directions, one 
drawing and the other repelling the seed cotton, whereby the lint or fibre passes 



388 History of Augusta. 

one way and the seed the other. This device, while answering fairly enough 
for the ginning of long staple, which parts with no great difficulty from the 
seed, has two drawbacks; one that is but a tedious process at best, and the 
other that the principle does not work with the ordinary upland variety where 
the fibre adheres closely to the seed. Celerity and power were the great de- 
siderata to make cotton of any great commercial value, and these Whitney sup- 
plies with his saw-gin, the principle of which may be roughly stated as a set of 
teeth working between bars, whereby the lint is drawn through to one side 
while the seeds drop upon the other. 

Mr. Whitney constructed his model and made his first experiments there- 
with in Richmond county on the waters of Rocky Creek, about two miles south 
of Augusta. The line of the Central Railroad now crosses the stream within 
view of the spot, and the dam built by the inventor to obtain a water supply 
by which to run the machine is still in existence and use, a modern improved 
gin now being operated where the original gin stood. 

Up to Whitney's invention, cotton was more a curious than valuable pro- 
duct, but as soon as the new discovery became known the staple rose almost at 
a bound into prominence. As early as 1796 the General Assembly of Geor- 
gia passed " an act for the inspection of cotton," a sure proof that the article 
even at that early day was extensively grown, the existence of inspection laws, 
whatever their utility in themselves, being evidence of a general production or 
use of the article inspected. By act of 1797 the inspection act of 1796 was 
repealed as having " been found in its operation not competent to the objects 
proposed, by no means beneficial to the interest of the State, and an unnecessary 
burden on the planters of that article." The next year we find a still further 
evidence of the rise of the staple into industrial prominence in the shape of an 
act of 1798 to encourage cotton manufactures, as follows: 

" Whereas, the manufactory of cotton will be attended with public utility, 
and William McClure and James Thompson have proposed to erect machines 
for that purpose. 

" Be it therefore enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the commis- 
sioners hereinafter named to establish a lottery within six months from and 
after the passing of this act, to raise the sum of two thousand dollars, under such 
schemes and regulations as may by them be deemed necessary, the said money 
to be applied to the use and benefit of the said William McClure and James 
Thompson for the purpose of erecting and carrying on the machinery afore- 
said. 

" And be it further enacted, That Benajah Smith, Joel Abbot, and John 
Matthews be, and they are hereby appointed commissioners to carry said lot- 
tery into effect." 

Succeeding this, we find further evidence to the same effect. 

" In his message to the Legislature of 1799, Governor James Jackson, in 



Manufactures. 389 



speaking on the then vexed question of Georgia's southern boundary, says that 
the lands in that part of the State " answer very well for cotton, an article that 
is rapidly advancing to the head of American exports, and which (Georgia cot- 
ton) is taking the lead and preference of that staple in most foreign markets, a 
staple which deserves the fostering hand of the Union, and merits its attention 
and encouragement." 

In another part of the same message he says : " Having, in a former part 
of my message touched on the article of cotton, I beg permission to call your 
attention to the complaint of foreign merchants as to the deception in the pack- 
age of it. To preserve the character and reputation of that highly important 
staple is worthy of the most minute attention of the Legislature of Georgia, 
that State which at first exclusively brought it into notice as an export of the 
United States, and which from its almost universal encouragement of its cul- 
ture since, bids fair to yield the United States a larger source of revenue than 
any other State in the Union. An inspection law was passed in 1796, but re- 
pealed in 1797 ; whether it may be proper to revive it, I leave to your superior 
judgment. But it is known that almost all of the valuable articles of export 
from the different States are found to stand in need of inspections, and cotton 
is certainly as valuable as any of them. Should this base practice continue 
unchecked by some guards, the mind of the merchant will be filled with dis- 
trust; the reputation of our cotton will diminish, and the loss will ultimately 
return on ourselves by a failure of price. But this is not all; such infamous 
practices tend to stamp on our character as a people a total want of honor, jus- 
tice, and morality, which I feel convinced you will deem it your duty to pre- 
vent." 

About this time, however, we regret to say, we find evidence of a disposi- 
tion to deny Mr. Whitney the just reward of his genius. Infringements on 
and violations of, his patent, litigation, and hostile State action combined to 
harass and annoy him, and while he fought his battle with great spirit in the 
courts for a number of years, and won several important causes, it is doubtful 
if, upon the whole, he reaped much emolument from his invention. 

December 15, 1800, the following advertisement, indicative of one of the 
troubles met by the inventor, appears in the Augusta Herald: 

" Notice to all concerned. — All persons wishing to use the Patent Gins for 
cleansing cotton are hereby informed that they can be supplied with licenses 
therefor by applying to the subscriber on or at any time before the 20th of 
January next. Those who neglect to furnish themselves by that time, will 
have none to blame but themselves should they afterwards be attended to in a 
way however necessary, by no means pleasing to 

"J. Grinage, agent for Miller & Whitney. 
"Columbia county, December 4, 1800." 



390 History of Augusta 



In his message to the Legislature of the same year Governor Jackson says: 
" I request your attention to the patent gin nionoply, under the laws of the 
United States, entitled ' an act to extend the privileges of obtaining patents 
for useful discoveries and inventions to certain persons therein mentioned, and 
to enlarge and define the penalties for violating the right of patentees.' The 
operation of this law is a prevention and cramping of genius as respects cotton 
machines, and a manifest injury to the community, and in many respect a-cruel 
extortion on the gin holders. The two important States of Georgia and South 
Carolina, where this article appears to be becoming the principal staple, are 
made tributary to two persons who have obtained the patent, and who demand, 
as I am informed, two hundred dollars for the mere liberty of using a ginning 
machine, in the creation of which the patentees do not expend one farthing, 
and which sum, as they now think their right secured, it is in their power in 
future licenses to raise to treble that amount; from the information given me 
by a respectable citizen of this town (Louisville) when Miller and Whitney, the 
patentees, first distributed the machines of their construction, they reserved the 
right of property in it, as also two-thirds of the net proceeds arising from the 
gin, tlie expenses of working to be joint between the patentee and the ginner. 
Finding, however, a defect in the law under which their patent was obtained, 
they determined to sell the machine, together with the right vested in them for 
five hundred dollars, and for a license to authorize a person to build and work 
one at his own expense, four hundred; but finding, as I suppose, that the defect 
of the law was generally understood, and that they could get no redress in the 
courts, they lowered the demand to the present rate of two hundred dollars- 
That they may raise it to the former rates is certain, and that they will do it 
unless public interfeience is had, there can be little doubt. I have been in- 
formed from other sources that gins have been erected by other persons who 
have not taken Miller & Whitney's machines for a model, but which in some 
small degree resembles it, and in improvement far surpass it, for it has been 
asserted that Miller & Whitney's gin did not on trial answer the intended 
purpose. The right of those improvements are, however, it appears, by the 
present act, merged in the right of the patentees, who it is supposed, on the 
lowest calculation, will make by it in the two States over two hundred thou- 
sand dollars. 

" Monopolies are odious in all countries, but more particularly so in a govern- 
ment like ours. The great law meteor, Coke, declared them contrary to the 
common and fundamental law of England. Their tendency certainly is to raise 
the price of the article from the exclusive privilege; to render the machine or 
article worse from the prevention of competition and improvement, and to im- 
poverish poor artificers and planters who are forbidden from making, vending, 
or using it without license from the patentees, or in case of so doing are made 
liable to penalties in a court of law. The Federal Circuit Court docket, it is 
said, is filled with those actions. 



Manufactures. 391 



"I do not doubt the power of Congress to grant those exclusive privileges, 
for the Constitution has vested them with it; but in all cases where they become 
injurious to the community they ought to be suppressed, or the patentees 
be paid a moderate compensation for the discovery from the government 
granting the patent. The celebrated Dr. Adam Smith observes that monopo- 
lies are supported by cruel and oppressive laws. Such is the operation at pres- 
ent of the law on this subject ; its weight lay on the poor industrious mechanic 
and planter. Congress, however, did not intend it so, for when the first law 
on this head was passed in February, 1793, a few individuals only cultivated 
cotton, and it was not dreamed of as about to become the great staple of the 
two Southern States, a staple, too, which, if properly encouraged, must take 
the decided lead of any other, bread kind excepted, in the United States. 
The steps proper to be taken to remedy this public grievance you will judge 
of, but I should suppose that our sister Sta^e of South Carolina, being so much 
interested, would cheerfully join Georgia in any proper application to Congress 
on the subject. I am likewise of the opinion that the States of North Caro- 
lina and Tennessee must be so far interested as to support such application. 
If you think with me, I recommend communications with all of them." 

The General Assembly took no action at this time on the foregoing recom- 
mendation, but the agitation was not abandoned, and in 1807, when the patent 
was about expiring, the following joint resolution was adopted: 

" Whereas, the period for which Miller & Whitney obtained an exclusive 
privilege for making and vending a gin for separating the seed from the cotton 
has now expired ; and, whereas, it is understood that themselves, or others 
in their behalf, are about to apply to Congress for a renewal of such exclusive 
privilege, and being convinced that such renewal would be highly injurious to 
the interest of the people of Georgia, and retard many improvements which 
might be made in the important business of ginning and cleaning of cotton. 

Now, be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
State of Georgia in General Assembly met, and by the authority of the same : 
That our senators be instructed and our representatives be directed to use 
every means in their power to oppose the renewel of such exclusive privilege." 

In South Carolina, also, trouble arose on the same subject. The original 
agreement was that the State was to pay Whitney $50,000 as follows : Cash, 
$20,000, and the residue in three equal payments — on September i, 1802, 
September i, 1803, and October i, 1804. By act of 1803 the comptroller 
was directed to withhold all future payments " until the event of existing dis- 
putes between the State and the said Miller & Whitney is concluded." Liti- 
gation ensued, which resulted in favor of the patentees, who thereupon re- 
ceived the stipulated payments. In Tennessee it is stated that $35,000 
agreed on was not paid ; but North Carolina, which had contracted for a five 
years' royalty, punctually discharged the same. The Augusta Herald man- 



392 History of Augusta. 



fully defended Mr. Whitney, and in its issue of December 30, 1801, thus speaks 
of his invention and the treatment of its author. 

" Since the formation of our government no invention has been more in- 
teresting and important to the Southern States than that of patent gins; and, 
we regret to add, that no invention has been more ungratefully rewarded." 

We may here add that at a later period of his life Mr. Whitney made some 
improvements in fire-arms, which brought him in a handsome revenue from 
the United States government in his declining years. He was born at West- 
borough, Mass., on December 8, 1765, and died at New Haven, Conn., on 
January 8, 1825. He was educated at Yale, removed to Georgia with a view 
of becoming a lawyer, and is said to have had his attention directed to the 
subject of his great invention by the widow of General Greene, of Revolution- 
ary fame, at whose house he resided, and who evinced a great interest in th^ 
young student's success in life. 

In the files of the Chronicle and other Augusta papers, much interesting 
information is to be had as to the state of the cotton market since the inven- 
ion of the saw-gin. 

Tho total export of the United States in 1791 was but 379 bales, while fo 
the year ending October i, 1800, it was 6,889 from Georgia alone. For the 
same period, the export from Charleston was 6,425,863 pounds, about 12,851 
bales. 

In 1802 a Liverpool price current of December 29, gives the following 
quotations : 

"Cotton — Georgia Sea Island, 26 to 35d ; upland, i4Ytoi5; New Orleans, 
II to 152"! fine Sea Island has become very scarce and is in brisk demand; 
good, bright upland becomes scarce and is inquired for; New Orleans very 
heavy." 

March, 1803, a Louisana letter says that cotton, usually 25 to 30 cents per 
pound there, is now but 15. 

July, 1806, Augusta quotation is 15 to 15^. Liverpool price current of 
March, 1807, says: Upland Georgias i6f to \%\<\: New Orleans, 18 to 20; 
Sea Island 18 to 2s. 4d ; very fine Georgias, 2s. 5d. and 2s. 6d. 

July 23, 1808, at Augusta, 12 to 13 dents; October 13, same year, it is said 
that England has only taken American cotton within the last ten or fifteen 
years, which would practically date the American cotton trade from the in- 
vention of the cotton gin. It is also said that in 1808 Bengal and Bombay 
sent 134,000 bales to Great Britain ; also,. that prior to the rise of the Ameri- 
can trade, England received her supply from the West Indies, and that since 
1793 she has added not only America, but Trinidad, Surinam and Demerara 
to her sources of supply. 

It will be remembered that by an act of Congress of December 22, 1807, 
commonly called the Embargo, commercial intercourse between the United 



Manufactures. 



393 



States and foreign countries was interdicted, which interdiction was not raised 
until March, 1809. The suicidal effect of this policy on American interests was 
soon made manifest, and its results are in some sort traceable to the present 
day — so terribly destructive is legislative interference with the natural course of 
trade. England was even at that time putting forth strenuous efforts to stimu- 
late the production of cotton in her colonies and dependencies, and with what 
result is shown by the fact that whereas the import into England from all other 
than American ports in 1806 was 49,996 bales, in 1807 i^ •'ose to 72,443, an 
increase of nearly fifty per cent, in a single season. Just at this inopportune 
time came the embargo. England was thus cut off entirely from her Ameri- 
can sources of supply, and at once redoubled her efforts in other cotton pro- 
ducing countries. The result is almost incredible. Up to 1808 Bengal, Bom- 
bay, the V/est Indies, Trinidad and Surinam were her non- American sources 
of supply, but in 1809 we find a Liverpool price current of August 25, which 
mentions that she has added some fifteen or sixteen more. The embargo was 
then raised, but the damage was done, as the non-American sources of supply 
show: 



d. 



s. cl. 



Sea Island, very clean and 
fine 2 

Good clean, rather fine .... 2 

Good clean, fair 2 

Good clean, middling 2 

Inferior and stained 

Upland, new 

Upland, old 

Tennessee 

New Orleans 

Bourbon 

Cayenne . • 

Surinam 

Demerara 

Grenada and Carriacon 
(Curocoa) 

Barbadoes 

Bahama 



4 to 2. 
3 to 2. 
li to 2. 
to 2. 
3 to I. 
5i to I. 
3 to I. 

5 to I. 

6 to I. 
none 

I i| to 2. o 

10^ to I. 11^ 

5 to I. 10 

8J to I. 10 

8 

5 to I. 9 



6 

4 

3 

li 

H 

Si 

4 

5i 

7i 



Liverpool, August 25, i 

s. d. 

Cumana i. 

Oronoko i. 

Jamaica i. 

St. Domingo i. 

Trinidad i. 

Laguira i. 

Giron i. 

Carthagena i . 

Surat, long i. 

Sural, short i. 

Smyrna i. 

Pernambuco. 2. 



Bahia 

Maranham. 

Para 

Mina 

Rio 



s 

to I 

to I 

to I 

to I 

5i to I 

5 to I 

7 

3 to I 
H to I 
o to I 
i^ to I 
o^ to I 
II to I 
loi 

9i to I 
9 to I 



d. 

9 
9 

7 
6 

7i 
6 

3i 



I 

Hi 

10 

9h 



"Duty on cotton imported in American ships 25s. 6d., in British ships 17s. 
2d. per 100 pounds." 

A further item to like effect is that for the first six months of 1 808 the import 
into Great Britain "from Brazil and Lisbon" was 4,980 bales; for the same 
period in 1809 it was 49,260 bales. 

April 5, 1810, Augusta quotation is 10 to ii-^; January 10, 181 1, is 13 to 
I3i 

50 



394 History of Augusta. 



In October, i8iO, Napoleon puts a duty of 300 francs on "Brazil, Cay- 
enne, Surinam, Demarara and Georgia long staple," and an explanatory note 
by the editor says all Southern Sea Island cotton was then called " Georgia 
long staple" in European marts. 

In 1 8 10 the total export of the United States was 188,000 bales. From 
this time out the growth oi the export, rate of the markets, etc., are readily 
traceable, and further quotations would not be of any special interest. Suffice 
it to say that in 1825 when Whitney died, the annual export had risen to 
400,000 bales as against the 379 painfully picked out by hand in 1791. 

We have said that the idea of cotton manufacturing at the South was co- 
eval with the invention of the cotton gin. As we have seen, a cotton-mill was 
incorporated in Georgia in 1798, but five years after Whitney had received his 
patent. By 1800 the export from Georgia had risen to 6,889 bales, as against 
379 in 1 791 ; and in 1825 had risen to 400,000. 1 his rapid increase in the 
raw material would have forced a corresponding development of manufactures 
in this State, but for the fact that Europe and the North were clamoring for 
supplies, and it was evidently a serious question in those days whether the 
South could compete with the greater capital and mechanical resources of such 
rivals. For instance, as early as 1808, the state of manufactures in New Eng- 
land was so flourishing as to attract special attention in the Southern press. 
As one instance, it was tlien noted that there was one mill in Rhode Island 
211 feet long and with 10,000 spindles, pretentious figures at that time. An- 
other trouble in the southern path was the labor question. A slave was worth 
more to produce cotton than to manufacture cotton. The South had a practi- 
cal monoply of production, but many competitors in the arena of manufactures. 
These considerations seem to have had a most depressing influence on the 
original conception that cotton should be grown at the mill- door, and it was 
not until a number of years after Whitney's death that Southern cotton manu- 
facturing began to show signs of life. After the incorporation of the cotton 
factory of 1798, heretofore mentioned, we find no other like establishments 
chartered until the year 18 10, when it appears one was incorporated in Wilkes 
county. The act gives as the reason of its passage that " Matthew Talbot, 
Boiling Anthony, Benjamin Sherrod, John Bolton, Frederick Ball, Gilbert 
Hay, and Joel Abbott, as managers of the company established in Wilkes 
county in this State, have by their memorial represented that a company has 
been formed for the purpose of manufacturing cotton and woolen goods (by 
machinery to be erected in Wilkes county) with a capital stock of ten thou- 
sand dollars, to be increased conformably to the articles of association of 
said company to any sum not exceeding fifty thousand dollars ; and the said 
managers have petitioned the Legislature for a charter of incorporation to 
enable them more effectually to accomplish the laudable and patriotic objects 
of the company." The company was therefore chartered as "the Wilkes Man- 



Manufactures. 395 



ufacturing Company." The act gives no light as to the methods of manu- 
facturing then in vogue, nor does aught of the further history of this early 
mill appear. It is stated, and it seems on good authority, that no organization 
under the charter was ever had. 

It was not until about twenty years later that cotton manufacturing in the 
South began to assume practical shape. From all the evidence we have been 
able to obtain it seems clear that Mr. John Shly (for many years judge of the 
Superior Court at Augusta and whose biography will be found in the chapters 
of this work on the judicial establishment) is entitled to the honor of success- 
fully operating the first cotton factory in the Southern States. 

In 1828 Mr. Shly went to Philadelphia and bought from Alfred Jenks, of 
Bridesburg, Penn., the first machinery for making cotton bagging and spinning 
yarns ever brought to Georgia. The machines were shipped to Savannah and 
thence wagoned two hundred miles to the interior, in Jefierson county, on 
Reedy Creek, and there Mr. Shly established his factory. The machinery was 
the best then known, termed " the live spindle." It was an English invention, 
and spun yarns of from fours to twelves. The bagging was number one thread. 
The journey to Philadelphia from Louisville, in Jefferson county, took Mr. 
Shly six weeks of constant travel in what was then known as the Alligator line 
of stage coaches. In his factory he ran four looms on cotton bagging, making 
from 300 to 400 yards per day. Of yarns he spun about 200 to 300 pounds 
per day, the quantity varying according as fine or coarse yarns were turned 
out. For this he received from $i to $1.50 per pound, the market being 
among the country people who worked it up into homespuns, jeans, etc. The 
bagging was sold to the planters to pack cotton in, the staple at that time be- 
ing packed only in round bales. To make the bales, the planter would cut off" 
a piece of bagging about ten feet long. The edges were then joined and sewed 
together, and one end also sewed up. This made a bag ten feet long and from 
twenty- two to twenty-three inches wide. Into this the cotton was tightly 
packed and rammed. When full, the mouth of the bag was closed. At each 
of the four corners an ear or lug, commonly filled with cotton seed, was made. 
The round bale ordinarily weighed 200 pounds, sometimes running to 300. 

After running some years, the price of cotton rose so high that the making 
of bagging out of it became unprofitable, and Mr. Shly discarded his bag- 
ging machinery and replaced it with spinning machinery, called " the dead 
spindle," an improvement on the live spindle, and devoted himself entirely to 
spinning yarns. The new spindle ran faster than the old and increased his pro- 
duction materially. The yarns were put up in five pound bunches, and found 
ready sale in the neighborhood, as has been stated. 

In the "live spindle" the spindle itself revolved, as well as the flyer. If 
the speed exceeded a certain moderate velocity the wings of the flyer ex- 
panded, causing them to catch one on the other and break. Moreover, in or- 
der to insert a new bobbin it was necessary to unscrew the flyer. 



396 History of Augusta. 



In the "dead spindle," the spindle was stationary, and only the flyer re- 
volved. The flyer was secured top and bottom to the whirl, thus preventing 
expansion and allowing a much greater rate of speed, and consequent increased 
yield of yarn. 

After obtaining the dead spindle Mr. Shiy put in six power looms, and 
wove osnaburgs, weighing about eight ounces to tlie yard, which he sold to the 
planters to clothe their slaves. These goods were about thirty inches wide, 
and sold readily at half a dollar per yard. Some fifty hands were employed 
in this primitive factory, about half being whites, and the rest slaves hired for 
the purpose. The white hands made from $6.50 to $10 per month, according 
to skill. Mr. Shly furnished his operatives houses, fire wood, garden patches, 
etc., free. While the number ol hands looks large for works no more exten- 
sive than this early factory, it must be remembered that in the then infancy of 
machinery more manual labor was required than at the present day. Mr. 
Shly also required his sons to work in the factory, for the purpose of acquir- 
ing a practical knowledge of the business. This was the first cotton manufac- 
tory in Georgia. It was called indifferently Shly's Mills, Reedy Creek Fac- 
tory, and Jefferson Bath Mills 

About 1834 Mr. Shly removed his factory from Jefferson county to 
Richmond. The cause of the removal was the unhealthiness of the Jefferson 
site, caused by the rotting of the timber in the mill pond. At this time Mr. 
Valentine Walker had a saw-mill on Butler's Creek, seven miles from Augusta, 
which Mr. Shly purchased and named Bellville. This site he converted into 
a cotton-mill. Having more power, he put in double the quantity of machin- 
ery used at the Ready Creek mill. In addition to cotton machinery, he put in 
machinery for the manufacture of woolen goods. The woolen goods were 
known as " Georgia plains;" it was made of all wool filling and cotton warp; 
was thirty inches wide and weighed ten ounces to the yard. These goods were 
sold to the planters for dresses for the female slaves. In addition there was 
made a twill of wool and cotton mixed, which weighed twelve or fourteen 
ounces to the yard, two grades being manufactured. This was used by the 
planters for overcoats, trousers, and jackets for their men slaves. It w^as ex- 
ceedingly popular among the planters in Georjj;ia and Carolina, particularly on 
the rice plantations, and superseded " British plains," being much more dura 
ble, warmer, and only costing half the price, the British plains being eighty 
cents per yard and ihe Georgia article forty cents. 

This mill also manufactured the first striped or checked cotton goods made 
in Georgia. A dye house was put in, and a variety of stripes and plaids were 
turned out. Blue and brown denims were also made, and had a large sale for 
workingmen's suits. It may here be added that during the war the mill made 
the first cotton duck made in Georgia. It was manufactured largely for tents 
and caisson covers for the Confederate government. Messengers came from 
many factories to Bellville to learn how to make this class of goods. 



Manufactures. 397 



Mr. Shly invented the first picker for picking the burrs out of wool and 
received a patent for it. In the destruction of the patent ofifice by fire in 1830 
the patent was destroyed. Mr. Shly then being on the bench and attaching 
httle importance to his invention suffered his rights to lapse. Subsequently 
other parties patented the idea, and it is now indispensable. Mr. Shly's in- 
vention was a corrugated roller running in front of the burring cylinder. 

The outfit of the Hellville factory was 5,000 cotton spindles and 1,200 wool 
spindles. There were 100 looms working on wool and cotton goods. There 
were eighty hands, the improvements in machinery allowing a material reduc- 
tion of force. The production was 800 to 1,000 yards per day of woolen goods, 
the quantity varying with the weight of the goods produced, and 3,000 yards 
of cotton goods, osnaburgs, stripes, plaids, and denims. Shortly before the 
war the Bellville factory was burned, a spark falling in the lint-room. With 
considerable effort it was rebuilt and refitted, and, as before stated, did much 
work for the Confederate government. There was a considerable production 
of duck used for caisson covers, and this new development was the cause of 
the second and final destruction of the time honored mill. In order to make 
the caisson covers more efficient they were enameled, and in this process a 
number of inflamable ingredients, oil, turpentine, etc., accumulated about the 
factory. One night, shortly after the operations of the mill for the day were 
over, fire was discovered in the paint or enameling room. The superinten- 
dent and his hands rushed to the rescue, but on bursting open the door of the 
room were driven back by overpowering fumes of sulphur; the flames in- 
stantly darted out into the other portions of the mill and the building was soon 
in ashes. One of the hands who had been employed a short time before and 
whose antecedents were unknown, had disappeared and was never seen there- 
after. It was then called to mind that he had predicted the destruction of the 
factory on the ground of its rendering such efficient aid to the Southern artil- 
lery, and the conclusion was not far off that he had been sent to do the work 
of destruction. The use of sulphur to drive off the rescuers until too late to 
save the property was considered a pregnant proof of fell design. 

A few years after Mr. Shly had demonstrated that cotton manufacturing 
in Georgia could be made a success quite a number of factory companies were 
incorporated, some of which still survive, as the Princeton factory at Athens, 
Shoal Creek, Roswell, and Montour factories, at Parker Store ; Roswell and 
Sparta, not forgetting Richmond factory, on the waters of Spirit Creek, in 
Richmond county, about ten miles from Augusta. Of this latter mill, still in 
active operation, we will give some sketch. 

In 1834 William Schley, Daniel Hook, Philip Thomas Schley, and George 
Schley, jr., were incorporated under the name and style of " the Richmond 
Factory, for the purpose of manufacturing cotton and wool, and making the 
machinery necessary and proper for the manufacture of those articles." The 



398 History of Augusta. 



charter does not state the amount of the capital stock, simply saying that " a 
large sum of money has been invested by the company in the purchase of ma- 
chinery and a water power on the banks of Spirit Creek." In 1849 the capital 
stock was $35,000, the number of spindles 1,500, and of looms forty. The 
operatives were seventy in number, mostly whites, and their wages from ten 
cents to one dollar per day. The annual consumption of cotton was 450 bales, 
the daily production 1,000 yards of cloth and 150 pounds of yarn. The pro- 
duct was equal in quality to any then produced in the United States, and was 
mostly sold in the United States. From its commencement up to 1849 ^^is 
mill had paid a regular annual dividend of sixteen per cent. At present 2,200 
spindles are operated in this venerable mill, the pioneer in Richmond county. 

Prior to the incorporation of the Richmond Factory, namely in 1832, 
Moses Rofif, jr.. John P. King, Green B. Marshall, Daniel Hook, and Amory 
Sibley were made commissioners to receive subscriptions for a cotton and 
woolen manufacturing company in Richmond county to be called "the Rich- 
mond Manufacturing Company." The capital stock was to be $50,000, in 
shares of $50 each, and increasable to $100,000. The charter is quite long, 
and makes many minute provisions as to the management of the corporate 
business, but throws no light upon the subject of manufacturing itself, and does 
not appear to have been put in operation. 

An inspection of the map of Richmond county will show that it seems 
marked out by nature for a manufacturing center from the abundance of wa- 
ter-power to be found within its limits. Leaving out of view for the present 
the Savannah River, which forms the northern and northeastern boundary of 
the county, we find seven different streams traversing the county in various 
directions, each of them studded at intervals with lakes or ponds. The value 
of the water-power thus profusely scattered about the county seems to have 
been recognized from the earliest settlement of the county, and to have been, 
from a very early date made available for grist-mills, and at a later period, 
cotton-gins. Some of the sites have been in use for over half a century, and 
one for ninety years. Taking the county at its northernmost point and com- 
ing southward, we first find Rae's Creek, flowing in a northeasterly direction 
and emptying into the Savannah River a little to the north of Augusta. This 
stream has two ponds, Thomas' pond and Skinner's pond, each with an an- 
cient mill site, and just before it reaches the river debouches into a handsome 
sheet of water called Lake Rae. Next below, and running parallel with the 
Savannah River, at a distance of about three miles south of the city and empty- 
ing into the river we find Rocky Creek which has six ponds, three of them — 
Wyld's, Kendrick's, and Phinizy's having mills. The latter site is one of the 
oldest if not the oldest in the county, and has an historical interest from the 
fact that it was here that E\\ Whitney first operated his cotton-gin. The trav- 
eler, journeying from Augusta to Savannah, can see from the car windows, as 
he speeds along the Central Railway, this historic spot. 



Manufactures. 399 



Next below Rocky Creek comes Butler's Creek, a bold stream which also 
runs parallel to the river and empties into it. This stream has eight ponds 
upon it, among others Wynne's, Crawford's, Tabb's, Belleville Factory, Duval's 
and Carmichael's. Below Butler's Creek, and running parallel to it and empty- 
ing into the Savannah River, comes Spirit Creek which, like Butler's, traverses 
the county from side to side. This has on the main stream and its tribu- 
taries, South Prong of Spirit Creek, Grindstone Creek, and Little Spirit Creek, 
eleven ponds, among them Richmond Factory pond, McDade's, Hancock's 
Hack's, and Walker's. South of Spirit Creek, and forming the southern 
boundary of Richmond county, is Briar Creek, famous as the scene of a battle 
in the Revolutionary War. This has four ponds, Fulcher's, Story's, Dickin- 
son's, and Bennoch's. All these streams run in a southeasterly direction 
across the county, dividing it into four water tiers, so to speak, but even this 
abundant supply does not exhaust the water-power. In the southwestern 
corner of the county, known as Pinetucky, two more streams furnish mill sites. 
One is Sandy Run, which runs almost due south, and has upon it five ponds, 
among them Merry's, McNair's, Palmer's, Savage's, and Bradshaw's. To the 
west of this, and also running due south, comes the classic Boggy Gut with 
two ponds. On these streams are to be found two factories, Richmond Fac- 
tory, on Spirit Creek, and Belleville Factory on Butler's Creek ; the building of 
the latter, however, being now in ruins. The number of neighborhood mills 
is legion. Among them may be mentioned Skinner's, Thomas's, Wyld's, 
Kendrick's. Phinizy's, Wynn's, Crawford's, Rowley's, Tabb's, Duval's, Car- 
michael's, McNair's, Rhode's, McDade's, Dove's, Walker's, Bennoch's, Dickin- 
son's, Hancock's, Fulcher's, Bradshaw's, Palmer's, Merry's, and Mercer's. 
Some exist only in name now, others grind the neighborhood corn and gin' the 
neighborhood cotton as blithely as of yore. Pleasant is the recollection of the 
many streams which intersect Richmond county and of the many mill sites 
which dot their banks. Happy are the hours we have spent in their cool 
shades watching the clouds flit by, hearing the pine trees rustle their whole- 
some foliage, breathing in the balsamic air, and ever and anon landing one of 
the fine game fish, bream or trout, that lurk in their dark pools. The abun- 
dant power we have mentioned as existing throughout Richmond county was 
early utilized for manufacturing purposes. 

In 1834 Richmond Factory was built on the waters of Spirit Creek, and in 
1850 the McBean Manufacturing Company was chartered to operate on the 
waters of the stream of that name. In 1854 the pioneer, Belleville Factory, 
on the waters of Butler's Creek, was incorporated. Of the McBean Factory 
we will have more to say hereafter. Sufiice it here to say that at a later date 
the locality of its franchise was transferred to the city of Augusta and its name 
changed to the Augusta Factory. 

In 1854 George Schley, John Shly, James M. Schley, WilHam Schley, and 



400 History of AuGUStA. 



Robert Schley were incorporated as the Belleville Factory, and empowered not 
only to operate Belleville Factory proper, " a manufacturing establishment in 
operation, located on Butler's Creek in Richmond county, seven miles south of 
the city of Augusta, for tlie manufacture of wool and cotton cloth," but to erect 
and operate other mills " for the manufacturing of wool and cotton cloth or other 
things" with like privileges. For many years this factory was in successful op- 
eration, as before noted. 

The abundant water-power of Richmond county inspired the organization 
of some manufacturing companies other than for the making of cotton goods. 
As early as 1839 ^^ ^""^ ^hat Jonathan Meigs, John M. Dow, Joseph K. KU- 
burn, Jesse Clark, Cesain Blome, Jesse Walton John Ambler, William H. Gor- 
don, Thomas Chafifin, and Leon P. Dugas were incorporated as " the Georgia 
Silk Manufacturing Company, to be located in Richmond county for the pur- 
pose of raising mulberry trees, growing and manufacturing silk, manufactur- 
ing machinery for reeling and spinning silk, and for carrying on the different 
branches of business necessarily connected with the operations above men- 
tioned." The capital was fixed at $500,000, and John Ambler, John M. Dow, 
and Jesse Walton were to direct the affairs of the company until it was form- 
ally organized. The company was incorporated for thirty years, and given 
power to establish branches of the business in other counties of the State. 
These were the days of the morns nmlticaiilus, of the great silk- worm craze 
which swept over the country a half century ago, and sanguine were the ex- 
pectations of the projectors of this novel enterprise. In the collapse of the silk 
fever it went down, and yet it may be said it was not a visionary scheme but 
only premature. It cannot be denied that that portion of Georgia in which 
Augusta is situated is admirably adapted to silk culture, and if the economic 
conditions can ever be made as favorable as the natural the dream of the early 
founders of the State that it should become a silk- producing country will be 
realized. So firmly persuaded were the founders of Georgia being a silk coun- 
try that, as will be remembered, the colonial seal bore the impress of a figure 
representing the genius of the province presenting a skein of silk to the king. 

In the same year, 1839, a company was formed for the production of beet- 
sugar. J. K. Kilburn, William Jones, William Gordon, John Ambler, and John 
W. Dunn were incorporated as the Augusta Sugar Manufacturing Company, 
with a capital of $450,000, increasable to $480,000, with power to establish 
branches of the business in other counties. The objects of the company were 
"the raising of the beet, and manufacturing sugar from the same, and for puri- 
fying and manufacturing sugar in its various branches." The charter ran to 
1870, but, like the silk company, this corporation came to naught. 

The use made of the water-power found so abundantly in the interior of 
Richmond county finally attracted attention to the Savannah River as having 
more than all the interior streams combined, and only needing adaptation to 



Manufactures. 401 



manufacturing needs. The existence of the Richmond Factory on Spirit Creek 
in so flourishing a condition as to pay a dividend of sixteen per cent, from the 
moment of its first operation was a standing incentive. If so much could be 
done on a country stream, what might not be done with the power of the Sa- 
vannah River? This agitation led to the Augusta Canal and the history of this 
famous work of internal improvement we now trace. To the energy and fore- 
sight of Nicholas De Laigle, James Fraser, John P. King, Andrew J. Miller, 
and Henry H. Cumming, old and honored citizens of Augusta, and to the lib- 
erality of the Bank of Augusta, the Augusta Insurance and Banking Company, 
the Bank of Brunswick, afterwards the Union Bank, and the Georgia Railroad 
Banking Company, the canal owes its existence. The original ordinance pro- 
viding for the canal is seldom now seen, and we here reproduce it as adopted 
on March 15, 1845. It reads as follows: 

"An ordinance to provide for the construction of a canal for manufacturing 
purposes, and for the better securing an abundant supply of water for the city. 

" Whereas, certain banking institutions, with the view of facilitating the con- 
struction of a canal for the purposes indicated in the title of this ordinance, have 
proposed, upon certain conditions, to advance to the city council certain sums 
of money, and from time to time, as may be needful, to cash such bonds (not 
exceeding in the aggregate the sum of one hundred thousand dollars) as may 
be issued by the authority, and on the credit of said city, for the prosecution of 
said work ; and, whereas, the citizens of Augusta, at a late public meeting, with 
great unanimity, resolved that the proposals of said institutions should be ac- 
ceeded to, and the plan suggested carried into effect, and the city council con- 
curring in opinion with said meeting: 

" Section i. Be it ordained by the city council of Augusta, that his honor 
the mayor be, and he is hereby authorized and required, in the name and in 
behalf of the city council of Augusta, to enter into a contract with the follow- 
ing banking institutions, to wit: The president, directors and company of the 
Bank of Augusta, the Augusta Insurance and Banking Company, the Bank of 
Brunswick, and the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, by which said 
contract, in consideration of certain things hereinafter specified to be done by 
the said banking institutions, the city council of Augusta shall bind itself to 
impose and collect such yearly amount of tax on real estate within the city, as 
will be sufficient to raise, within ten years, the amount requisite to pay the 
bonds hereinafter provided for, and issue the certificates, and make the trans- 
fer hereinafter specified ; in consideration whereof, the said several banking in- 
stitutions shall, in and by the said contract, respectively bind themselves to ad- 
vance to said city council of Augusta, the sum of one thousand dollars each, 
and to cash the bonds hereinafter specified, whenever required so to do, in con- 
formity with the terms of said contract. 

" Section 2. And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, that in 
51 



402 History of Augusta. 



conformity to the terms of the said proposed contract, there be assessed and 
collected for the current year, and there is hereby assessed for said year, on all 
the real estate in the city of Augusta, subject to taxation, a tax of one- fourth 
of one per cent, on the present valuation thereof, and that the clerk of council 
forthwith make out and deliver to the collector and treasurer of said city, a di- 
gest of all the taxable real estate in the city of Augusta ; and that the said col- 
lector and treasurer immediately thereafter proceed to collect the said tax, and 
upon the receipt thereof deliver to each taxpayer a transferable scrip or cer- 
tificate of such payment, securing to such tax-payer and his or her assigns, an 
nterest in the said canal proportionate to the amount of tax so by l>im or her 
paid ; and the said collector and treasurer shall, in like manner to each of the 
banking institutions in the first section of this ordinance named, and to such 
other voluntary contributors (whose contributions he may have been by the 
city council authorized to receive), issue and deliver similar certificates ; and it 
shall be the duty of the said officer, and of the clerk of council, in all books 
accounts, and statements kept or made by them, respectively, to keep the ac- 
count of the said tax separate and distinct from all other accounts of the city 
council, distinguishing the same as ' the canal tax,' and the said tax shall be 
devoted and applied exclusively to the payment of the bonds hereinafter men- 
tioned, and such interest as may accrue thereon. 

" Section 3. And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, that 
the city council, immediately after the passage of this ordinance, shall elect nine 
canal commissioners, whose duty it shall be to make all necessary contract for 
the construction of the proposed canal, and other works therewith connected ; 
to receive all moneys raised for that purpose and to disburse such parts thereof 
as may be required in the construction of the same, to employ engineers and 
others, whose services may be required for that purpose; locate the line of said 
canal along the high ground between Jackson and Washington streets, south 
of the Beaver Dam, and provide for the discharge of the same into the river at 
or near the northern extremity of East Boundary street ; and generally to su- 
perintend the entire construction of the said canal, necessary aqueducts, waste- 
ways, bridges, and other works therewith connected. And it shall be the duty 
of said commissioneis immediately on the receipt of any moneys applicable to 
the construction of the said canal and other works, to deposit the same in one 
of the banks in this city, to be thence withdrawn only for the purposes of said 
work, upon checks signed by at least three of their number, and countersigned 
by their secretary and bookkeeper, and make regular monthly reports to the 
city council of all their actings and doings, accompanied by an account of all 
moneys by them received or disbursed for the purposes aforesaid. And the 
said commissioners shall have the power to fill all vacancies occurring in their 
body by death, resignation, removal or otherwise; and any commissioner may 
for misfeasance or neglect of duty, be removed by the city council, at a meet- 



Manufactures. 403 



ing called for that purpose, by a vote of three-fourths of the members present, 
and upon such removal it shall be the duty of the remaining commissioners 
immediately to fill the vacancy thereby produced. 

" Section 4. And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, that 
the said board of commissioners shall, before transacting any other business, pro- 
ceed to elect a secretary and bookkeeper, with a reasonable salary, and remov- 
able at their pleasure, whose duty it shall be to attend all meetings of the com- 
missioners, keep minutes of their proceedings, and full and regular accounts of 
all moneys received and expended by them, and perform all other duties which 
may be required of him by the said commissioners. 

"Section 5. And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, that so 
soon as the mayor for the time being, shall be notified by the said commission- 
ers that the}^ are fully organized and prepared for the transaction of business, 
it shall be his duty, and he is hereby required, to make and issue, in the name 
and behalf of the city council of Augusta, bonds of convenient amounts, not ex- 
ceeding in the aggregate the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, signed by 
him in his official capacity, countersigned by the clerk of the council, and sealed, 
with the corporate seal, payable in ten equal annual portions, so that the first 
portion of the said bonds shall be payable one year after date, and the last 
portion ten years after the date thereof, with interest at the rate of eight per 
cent, per annum, payable semi-annually, to be calculated from the days on 
which said bonds shall be respectively cashed by the banking institutions afore- 
said in conformity to their proposed contract, which days shall be inserted by 
said commissioners in a blank to be left for that purpose in said bonds ; which 
said bonds with such contributions to be applied to said work as may be re- 
ceived by him, the said mayor, or the city council of Augusta, or any of its offi- 
cers, shall be turned over to the said commissioners, who, or a majority of them, 
shall receipt for the same. 

"Section 6. And be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, that so sopn as 
the said canal, with works therewith connected, shall have been completed, and 
scrips or certificates, as provided in the second section of this ordinance, shall 
have been issued for two-thirds of the tax imposed in and by the said section, 
it shall be the duty of the mayor for the time being to issue his proclamation 
inviting the holder of. said scrip, in person or by their agents, attorneys or 
proxies, on a day to be therein named (and at least ten days after the issuing 
of such proclamation), to assemble at such place in said city as he may desig- 
nate, to adopt such rules and regulations and appoint such officers as they deem 
expedient for their own government in the future management of the said 
canal and the works therewith connected, at which said meeting and at all 
future meetings, until the holders of the major part of the aggregate amount of 
said scrips shall have otherwise directed, each scrip holder shall be entitled to 
one vote at the least, and to an additional vote for every dollar over one, for 
which he or she may hold scrips. 



404 History of Augusta. 



"Section 7. And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, that so 
soon as the mayor, for the time being, shall duly be notified that the said scrip 
holders are fully organized by the adoption of rules and regulations and the ap- 
pointment of officers, as provided in the preceding section, he shall give notice 
thereof to the canal commissioners, whose duty it shall be thereupon to furnish 
to the proper officer or officers of the said scrip holders, a full statement of the 
situation of said canal and the works therewith connected, and in due form sur- 
render and transfer the same to the said officers, with all the rights and privi- 
leges acquired by them as commissioners, and pay over and deliver to them all 
moneys and city bonds then remaining in their hands, provided the same do 
not exceed the sum of five thousand dollars, over and above what may be then 
due upon unsettled accounts against the said commissioners, and the residue, if 
any, to the treasurer of the city, to be applied exclusively to the payment of 
outstanding bonds issued under the provisions of this ordinance ; upon the 
completion of which surrender and transfer the duties and office of said com- 
missioners shall cease. 

" Section 8. And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, that the 
mayor be, and he is hereby authorized and required to execute and deliver to 
Nicholas Delaigle, James Frazer, John P. King, Andrew J. Miller, and Henry 
H. Gumming, in trust, for the ultimate proprietors of said canal, a deed, grant- 
ing the right of way for the same over and through all lands belonging to the 
city council, upon the following terms, that is to say, that the managers and 
proprietors of the said canal, for the purpose of insuring an adequate supply of 
water for the use of the city, shall at all times keep in said canal, within the 
corporate limits, a stream of water at least four feet in depth, and permit the 
city council to withdraw from the same at any point below Centre street ex- 
tended, or at such other point or points as may be agreed on, such quantity of 
water as may be required for the use of the city, not reducing the volume of 
water in said canal below what is necessary for manufacturing purposes, and 
upon the further condition that no water shall, without the consent of the city 
council, be withdrawn from said canal for the purpose of propelling machinery, 
at any point above West Boundary street, except in those cases in which the 
proprietors granting the right of way for said canal have reserved the right to 
use the same. 

" Done in council this fifteenth day of March, eighteen hundred and forty- 
five. M. M. DVE, Mayor C. A. 

" Attest, John Hill, clerk, /r^ /rw." 

By ordinance of July 7, 1845, the foregoing was amended so as to make 
the point of discharge for the canal into the river at or near Hawk's Gully in- 
stead of at the northern extremity of East Boundary street, or in other words 
at the western instead of the eastern end of the city. 

While the legislation on the subject of the canal was in this shape applica- 



Manufactures. 405 



tion was made to the General Assembly for a charter for the proprietors of the 
canal under the original scheme, and in December, 1845, ^^^^^ body passed the 
following act, which with the ordinances of March 17 and July 17, 1845, form 
the organic law, so to speak, of the canal. The act is as follows : 

" An act to incorporate the proprietors of the Augusta Canal, and to con- 
firm certain ordinances of the city council of Augusta, therein mentioned, and 
to punish those who may injure their property. 

" Whereas, the city council of Augusta, by an ordinance passed on the fif- 
teenth day of March, eighteen hundred and forty-five, amended by an ordi- 
nance passed on the seventh day of July, of the same year, provided for the 
construction of a canal for manufacturing and other purposes, which is now in 
process of construction from Bull Sluice, on Savannah River, in Columbia 
county, into the city of Augusta, by which said ordinance the payers of cer- 
tain taxes therein specified, and others contributing to the expense of construct- 
ing the said canal, and their assigns, are to become the proprietors thereof, in 
proportion to the amount of scrip issued to, or held by them, under the pro- 
visions of said ordinance ; and whereas, it is necessary for the proper manage- 
ment of said canal that the proprietors thereof should be incorporated. 

" Section i. Be it therefore enacted by the Senate and House of Represen- 
tatives of the State of Georgia, in general assembly met, and it is hereby enacted 
by the authority of the same, that all persons now holding, or who may here- 
after hold such scrip as has been or may be issued by authority of, and in con- 
formity to the provisions of an ordinance of the city council of Augusta, passed 
on the fifteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and 
forty-five, entitled an ordinance ' to provide for the construction of a canal, for 
manufacturing purposes, and for the better securing an abundant supply of 
water for the city,' be, and they are hereby made and declared to be a body 
corporate and politic, under the name and style of the Augusta Canal Com- 
pany, and by that name and style shall have perpetual succession of ofificers 
and members, and be capable in law to have, purchase, receive, possess, enjoy 
and retain, to themselves and their successors, lands, tenements, hereditaments, 
goods, chattels and effects, of what kind, nature or quality soever the same may 
be, and the same to sell, grant, demise, alien, or otherwise dispose of; to sue 
and be sued, plead and, be impleaded, answer and be answered unto, in any 
court of law or equity of competent jurisdiction, in this State or elsewhere; 
also to adopt and use a common seal, and to ordain, establish, and execute 
such by-laws, rules and regulations, as they shall deem necessary for their gov- 
ernment, and the proper management of said canal. Provided the same be 
not repugnant to the constitution and laws of this State, or of the United States. 

" Section 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that for 
the well ordering of the affairs of said company, there shall be a board of five 
managers, who shall be elected so soon as said canal shall be completed by the 



4o6 History of Augusta. 



commissioners now charged with the construction of the same, or before that 
time, if a majority of the scripholders, or stockholders voting as hereinafter pro- 
vided, shall, at a meeting to be called for that purpose, after ten days' notice in 
any two gazettes published in Augusta, so determine; which said managers shall 
hold their offices for one year from the time of their election, and until their suc- 
cessors shall be duly elected; at which elections, and in all meetings of the scrip- 
holders or stockholders, each scripholder or stockholder shall have one vote at 
least, and an additional vote for every dollar over one for which he or she may 
hold scrip. And the said board of managers shall, at the first meeting after 
their election, elect a president, and such other officers as may be necessary 
for the convenient management of the affairs of the said company. Provided 
that such election of managers and officers shall not supersede the commis- 
sioners now charged with the construction of said canal and works, before the 
completion of the same. 

" Section 3. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that it 
shall be lawful for the said managers, at any time hereafter, to increase the vol- 
ume of water in said canal, by deepening or widening the same, or both, and 
extending and raising the dam now being constructed at the upper end of said 
canal ; and any damage sustained by individuals from the construction of such 
works, or any of them, shall be ascertained and recovered in the manner here- 
inafter specified for the ascertainment and recovery of other damages. 

" Section 4. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the 
said managers for the time being shall have full power, in the name and be- 
half of the said company, to make all contracts for the construction, extension, 
repair and improvement of said canal and its appurtenances, and for the use of 
the water of the s.ime for manufacturing or other purposes, and to impose and 
collect such proportionate assessments upon the individual stockholders of said 
company as may be required for such construction, extension, repair or im- 
provement, or for the payment of any damage sustained by manufacturers or 
others from a failure to supply them with water, according to such contracts as 
may be made by virtue of the authority hereinbefore granted, or to meet any 
other legal liability of the com|)any; and upon the failure of any stockholder to 
pay such assessment within thirty days of the time appointed for the payment 
of the same, (of which ten days notice shall be given through any two of the 
gazettes then published in the city of Augusta), the entire interest of such de- 
faulting stockholder in said canal and its appurtenances, and all other property, 
rights and franchises held by the company, shall be forfeited to said company. 

" Section 5. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in 
case the line of said canrd, or the race-ways, waste-ways, or towpath there- 
with connected, shall pass through the lands of any person or persons with 
whom the present commissioners, or their successors, or the future managers of 
said canal, hereafter to be elected, as provided in the second section of this act, 



Manufactures. 407 



have not made or cannot make a satisfactory agreement as to the terms upon 
which the same may be extended over or through such lands, the said com- 
missioners, or their successors, or the said managers, as the case may be, shall 
nevertheless have the right to establish, open and construct the said canal, race- 
ways, water-ways, (waste-ways) and towpaths through and over the same, and 
that the damages, if any, sustained by the proprietor or proprietors of such 
land-j shall be ascertained and assessed by five appraisers, of whom two shall 
be nominated by said commissioners or managers, two by such proprietor or 
proprietors, and the fifth by the four so nominated, whose award, or that of a 
majority of them, certified in writing under their hands and seals, in duplicate, 
one part for each of the parties in interest, shall be recorded in the office of the 
clerk of the Superior Court of the county in which such lands are situated ; 
and if not appealed from, as hereinafter provided, shall operate as, and have 
the force and effect of a judgment, vesting in said company the right of way 
over and through such lands; upon which award, so recorded, and not ap- 
pealed from, if any sum is thereby awarded as damages to said proprietor or 
proprietors, the said clerk shall, after the expiration of thirty days from the 
time of the record thereof, issue execution for the same, under the usual form 
of executions founded upon judgment of the court, returnable to the next Su- 
perior Court of said county, which execution may be levied on any property 
of the company, real or personal. But in case either of the parties should be 
dissatisfied with the decision or award of the said appraisers, such dissatisfied 
party or parties may, within ten days after the recording of the same, exercise 
his, her or their right of appeal, by making known his, her or their intention, 
by a written notice served upon the adverse party, and upon the said clerk, 
whose duty it shall be thereupon to suspend the issue of execution, and enter 
a memorandum of such appeal on the appeal docket of his court, to be tried 
by a special jury at the next term, which trial shall be final, vesting in the com- 
pany the said right of way, and in case of damages entitling the person for 
whom they are found to a judgment and execution therefor: Provided, that 
the appraisers hereinbefore mentioned, before entering upon the discharge of 
their duties as such [shall] severally take and subscribe an oath, before some 
judicial officer of the State, well and truly and impartially to determine and 
award in the premises. . 

" Section 6. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in 
case it should be necessary, in the further construction or future extension, 
deepening or widening of said canal, or its race-ways, waste-ways, or other 
improvements or works therewith connected, to use any earth, clay, stone, 
gravel or other materials, on or near the line of said canal, or other works, 
and the said commissioners or managers, and the proprietor or proprietors of 
the land from which such eartli, clay, stone, gravel or other materials are to be 
taken cannot agree upon the terms on which the same may be procured for 



4o8 History of Augusta. 



the purposes aforesaid, it shall nevertheless, be lawful for said commissioners 
or managers to take and use the same, and the damages, if any, shall be as- 
sessed, the right of appeal it desired exercised, and the ultimate award or judg- 
ment shall be enforced, as provided in the preceding section of this act in rela- 
tion to the right of way, and assessment and collection of damages awarded by 
the appraisers, or found by special jury on appeal : Provided, that no differ- 
ence or disagreement between the said compan\' and any landholders shall be 
a ground f^r injunction against said commissioners, managers or company, or 
otherwise suspend or impede any of the works contemplated in this or the pre 
ceding section of this act, which shall proceed without delay or interruption, 
upon the said commissioners, managers or company tendering to such land- 
holders sufiRcient security for the payment of such damages as may be so as- 
sessed or found for him as aforesaid ; upon the sufficiency of which said secu- 
rity the judge to whom application may be made shall decide, and who if he 
deems the same insufficient, shall require other or additional security to be of- 
fered within three days; on failure or refusal to give which an injunction may 
issue ; but any injunction granted against said commissioners, managers or 
company shall be dissolved so soon as such security as the judge of the Su- 
perior Court of the middle district of this State may deem sufficient shall have 
been given by said commissioners, managers or company. 

" Section 7. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the 
board of managers, for the time being, shall have power to make and enforce 
such rules and regulations in relation to the use of said canal and its waters, 
for navigation or other purposes and to impose and collect such tolls, rents or 
other charges, as they may deem equitable and expedient, and which do not 
interfere with any of the existing contracts or obligations of said company, or 
of the commissioners now charged with the construction of said canal, under 
the provisions of the ordinances of the city council of Augusta, mentioned in 
the first section of this act; which said ordinances are hereby confirmed and 
declared to be of full force, so far as the same are not superseded or modified 
by the provisions of this act. Provided that nothing herein contained shall 
afTect the rights of any person or persons who may have heretofore instituted 
any legal proceedings with a view of obtaining exemption or relief from the 
payment of taxes or assessments imposed by said ordinance. 

"Section 8. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in 
case it should at any time hereafter be deemed expedient for any of the law- 
ful purposes of said company to increase the capital stock thereof, by voluntary 
subscriptions, it shall be lawful for the stockholders therein to authorize such 
increase, upon such terms and conditions as may be decided on by said stock- 
holders, voting as hereinbefore provided, in a general meeting to be called for 
that purpose, of which at least thirty days' notice shall be given in the several 
gazettes then published in the city of Augusta ; and that the new stockholders 



Manufactures. 409 



coming into the corporation under such subscription, shall have all the privi- 
leges and be subject to all the duties and liabilities of the original corporation. 

"Section 9. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that in 
case the managers of said company should at any time hereafter deem it nec- 
essary or expedient to borrow money to carry on the construction, extension, 
enlargement or improvement of said canal, or any of the appurtenances thereof 
it shall be lawful for them to mortgage the said canal and appurtenances, and 
any other property of which they may be possessed, by way of security for the 
payment of such loans as they may make for such purposes ; and that in case 
of the foreclosure of such mortgage, and the sale of such canal and its appur- 
tenances, the purchaser or purchasers thereof upon full compliance with the 
terms of sale, shall have, possess, retain and enjoy as a body politic and corpor- 
ate under the said name and style of the Augusta Canal Company, all and 
singular the rights and privileges by this act conferred upon and vested in the 
company hereby incorporated, and be subject to all and singular the duties, 
obligations and restrictions imposed upon the same by the provisions of this 
act, or by the ordinances of the city council of Augusta, hereinbefore men- 
tioned, so far as the same are not superseded or modified by this act, and shall 
be bound faithfully to keep and perform all contracts theretofore made by the 
said company in relation to the use of said canal and the waters thereof Pro- 
vided that no such mortgage shall be made, but upon a vote of a majority of 
the managers for the time being at two successive meetings between which 
there shall be an interval of at least ten days. And provided further, that the 
said managers shall not mortgage said canal and its appurtenances for any 
sum or sums of money, amounting in the aggregate at any one time to more 
than ten thousand dollars, unless specially authorized and instructed to loan 
the same for a larger amount, by a vote of a majority of the stockholders, vot- 
ing as hereinbefore provided in a general meeting of said stockholders called 
for that purpose after at least thirty days' notice thereof in each of the gazettes 
at the time published in the city of Augusta. 

"Section 10. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if 
any person shall wilfully and maliciously in any way obstruct, injure or dam- 
age the said canal or any raceway, wasteway, towpath, dam, gate, aqueduct, 
culvert, drain, bridge, fence, or other work therewith connected, or wilfully and 
maliciously, in any manner whatever, obstruct the free passage of water into 
and through the said canal, or any of the raceways, wasteways, or aid or assist 
counsel or abet any other person or persons in so doing, such persons so offend- 
ing shall be liable to be indicted for a misdemeanor, and upon conviction 
thereof shall be punished by fine, or imprisonment in the common jail or both 
at the discretion of the court ; and moreover shall be liable in damages to said 
company, and to any person or persons who may be thereby injured, to be re- 
covered by action in any court having competent jurisdiction. 
52 



4IO History of Augusta. 

"Section ii. And be it further enacted, that the proprietors of said canal 
shall open and keep open the boat-sluice on the outside of their dam, at the 
head of said canal, so that the navigation of the river at that point shall be made 
and kept at least as good as it was before the construction of said dam ; and 
that said proprietors shall not be allowed, by any extension of said dam, or any 
other work, to obstruct the navigation of said river or the free passage of fish. 

"Section 12. And be it further enacted, that the stockholders shall be lia- 
ble for the debts of said company, in proportion to their respective interests 
therein ; and that said company shall not at any time contract debts beyond 
half the amount of the capital invested." 

By act of 1849 the managers of the Augusta Canal Company were author- 
ized, when so directed by a vote of the stockholders, to transfer the canal and 
all its appurtenances, to the city council of Augusta on such terms as might be 
agreed on, and subsequently this was done so that the council is now the 
owner of the work. By the original ordinance an issue of $100,000 of city 
bonds was authorized. These were to be met by taxation, and each taxpayer 
was to receive a certificate of stock in the Canal Company proportionate to the 
amount of canal tax paid by him. The banks were to advance $1,000 each 
on the bonds, and then cash the residue at such times as might be agreed on. 
The cash in hand under this arrangement was soon exhausted, and it became 
evident that the full issue of $100,000 would be insufficient. Accordingly by 
ordinance of March 7, 1846, council subscribed $30,000 additional in bonds 
and came in as a stockholder to that extent. By ordinance of October 3, i 846, 
it levied an annual tax of one half of one per cent, on all the real estate in the 
city for the redemption of the canal bonds. By ordinance of July 13, 1850, 
council authorized another issues of $30,000 of city bonds for the use of the 
Canal Company, to enable it to complete the work. By ordinance of Decem- 
ber 29, 1 85 1, another issue of $10,000 was authorized for the same purpose ; 
and by ordinance of November 12, 1852, still another like issue of $30,000. 
The entire work on the Augusta canal, as it was originally constructed, from 
the preliminary surveys to the letting in of the water, was done inside of three 
years. The engineer in charge was William Phillips, for many years city 
engineer and surveyor, and his account of the work as given a year or two 
after its completion will be of interest. Mr. Phillips says: "In September, 
1844, at the request of Colonel Henry H. Cumming, an examination of the 
falls in the neighborhood of Augusta was commenced with a view of ascertain- 
ing the practicability of rendering them available for manufacturing and other 
purposes. The report of the engineer indicating a favorable route for a canal, 
and showing considerable fall, was considered at a meeting of the friends of the 
enterprise on the 9th of January, 1845. Another survey was made, several 
preliminary meetings were held, and finally a meeting of the citizens was 
called at which it was determined to proceed with the work. The plan pro- 



Manufactures. 411 



posed and adopted was that the city council should issue bonds for the pur- 
pose of defraying the expense, and that a special tax should be levied on the 
real estate in the city to pay off the bonds at maturity The Bank of Augusta, 
the Bank of Brunswick, the Georgia Railroad Bank and the Augusta Insurance 
and Banking Company each subscribed $1,000 for the same purpose. The 
same banks also gave further aid by advancing cash for the bonds. The right 
of way through the lands lying west of the city was obtained, with one excep- 
tion, very easily. The right of way through the city lots was procured with 
much trouble, except in a few instances, in which the right was granted with 
great liberality. In April, 1845, the location of the canal was made, and the 
larger portion of it put under contract. The work was commenced the May 
following. The whole fall of 45 feet was divided as follows : The first level, 
extending from Bull Sluice to near Marbury street, about 6i miles, in length, 
with its bottom slope of about 6 inches per mile, reduced the fall 41.36 feet; 
from the first to the second level the fall is 13 feet; from the second to the 
third level the fall is 13 feet; and from the third to the river the fall is about 
15 feet. The first level terminates on the high ground between Marbury and 
McKinne streets, a little to the south of Fenwick street. The second level 
overlaps the first on the north, and extends from Mr. Meigs's land to the Sa- 
vannah road, near its intersection with McKinne street. The third level, lying 
north of the second, extends from the Savannah road to Hawk's Gully, at the 
upper end of the city. The waterway of the canal is 5 feet deep, 20 feet wide 
at bottom, and 40 feet wide at the surface of the water. The water is turned 
into the canal by a low dam of timber and stone, about 800 feet in length, 
running diagonally to an island, and including only about one quarter of the 
width of the river. At the junction of the dam and canal there is a guard-wall 
of stone, in which there are six gates, by means of which the supply of water is 
regulated, and that from the river may be entirely excluded. Connected with 
the dam and guard- wall there is a stone lock by which boats pass into and out 
of the canal. The first level is passed over the valley of Rae's Creek, by an 
aqueduct 132 feet in length, constructed of wood. It is passed over several 
smaller streams, by culverts of stone and brick, and is now connected with 
Rae's Creek by means of a dam across that stream. At a short distance above 
Rae's Creek there is a waste way, 420 feet in length, which is intended to reg- 
ulate the height of the water in all that part of the first level beeween it and 
the terminus in the city. West of McKinne street the canal is so enlarged as 
to form a basin and landing for boats. All the bridges are made of wood, and 
those of the first level are so elevated that the towpath and boats pass under 
them. The water was .let into the first level on the 23d of November, 1846. 
Last year [1848] there were about 13,000 bales of cotton landed at the basin, 
and it is probable that the number of bales this year will be extended to 20,- 
000. Besides cotton, flour, corn, peas, bacon, and staves, several thousand 



412 History of Augusta. 

cords of fire- wood have been landed; also granite, gneiss, and mica slate for 
building. Thus far the advantages anticipated by the promoters of the enter- 
prise bid fair to be realized." 

In this sketch, written about 1848, Mr. Phillips fails to mention that Hon. 
John P. King and Colonel Henry H. Gumming themselves advanced the 
money to pay for the preliminary surveys which demonstrated the practicability 
and value of the canal, and were the basis of its construction. 

The Augusta Canal, however, was not built without running the gauntlet of 
litigation. In 1848 Martin Frederick, John W. Houghton. Thomas J. Walton, 
Philip McGraw, Benjamin F. Chew. David L. Curtis, and John Phinizy filed 
their bill in Richmond Superior Court to enjoin the collection of the canal tax 
which had been levied on their property under the ordinances we have men- 
tioned. The bill set out the ordinance authorizing the construction of the 
canal, the ordinance changing the direction of a portion of the route, the 
act approving those ordinances, and the ordinance increasing the amount of 
the canal tax, and then proceeded to say that complainants were owners of real 
estate in Augusta, and that executions had been issued against them to coerce 
payment of the canal tax levied upon them under said ordinances. They 
claimed that the Legislature could not constitutionally make them stockholders 
in the Augusta Canal Company as the act of 1845 contemplated, they never 
having consented to become such ; that the city council had no legal authority 
to raise money by taxation to be expended without the corporate limits where- 
as the canal was to be constructed from a point called Bull's Sluice, some seven 
or eight miles from the city; that the canal had not been constructed accord- 
ing to the provisions of the ordinance authorizing it, inasmuch as that ordin- 
ance prescribed it should be constructed along the high ground between Jackson 
and Washington streets, south of the Beaver Dam, whereas the work had been 
stopped at the street above the upper market, so that owners of real estate in 
the middle and lower parts of the city were deprived of whatever advantages 
might result from the construction of the canal ; and that council had no right 
to levy a tax upon one kind of property and not include all taxable property. 
Complainants prayed that the collection of the canal tax should be enjoined, 
and Judge Holt, then presiding in Richmond Superior Court, granted an in- 
junction. The city council moved to dissolve the injunction, which motion was 
granted. PVancis H. Cone, the celebrated advocate of Greensboro, represented 
the complainants, and Hon. Andrew J. Miller appeared for the city. The case 
was carried to the Supreme Court of Georgia and the judgment of Judge Holt 
was there afiirmed. Judge Warner delivered the opinion. The Supreme Court 
held that under the broad language of the city's charter, whereby the city 
council was " vested with full power and authority to make such assessments 
on the inhabitants of Augusta, or those who hold taxable property within the 
same, for the safety, benefit, convenience, and advantage of the said city as 



Manufactures. 413 



shall appear to them expedient," the council was authorized to construct the 
canal. If any doubt existed as to its power, the act of the Legislature ratify- 
ing and confirming the ordinance providing for the construction of the canal 
operated as a new and sufficient grant of authority. The authority of the Leg- 
islature to pass the act of 1845 was indubitable. As to the argument that the 
Legislature could not constitutionally make complainants stockholders in the 
canal without their consent, the court said that the tax was levied on them as 
citizens, under competent authority. The provision that each taxpayer should 
receive a certificate of stock in the canal company in proportion to the amount 
of canal tax paid by him was for the benefit of the taxpayer. It was not com- 
pulsory upon him to receive the stock certificate. The objection that the tax 
was partial as being levied only on real estate, thereby subjecting the owners 
of that species of property to a burden not imposed on those owning other kinds, 
though the object of the tax was the benefit of all, was not noticed by the court 
further than by inference in sustaining the legality of the assessment on the 
grounds just mentioned. 

The canal, as originally constructed, gave six hundred horse-power, but in 
course of time it became apparent that this was too small for the growing de- 
mand. The first device was to raise the banks so as to give a depth cf seven 
feet of water and thus increase the quantity of water, but the additional supply 
thus obtained was in turn speedily exhausted. It became apparent also that 
from natural accretion, washing of the water, etc., the water area was lessening 
by gradual filling up of the waterway, and in 1869 the idea of an enlargement 
began to take shape. Pending active steps to this end the city and the Au- 
gusta Factory purchased a steam dredge, which made some improvement. It 
soon became manifest, however, that the time for expedients was passed, and 
steps were taken looking to an enlargement and remodeling of the entire work. 

On the 3d of December, 1869, Mayor J. V. H. Allen, in his inaugural ad- 
dress to the council, said : " The question of the enlargement of the Augusta 
Canal has been respectfully referred to you by your immediate predecessors. 
They are of the opinion that this public work contains the germ of the future 
greatness of our city, and needs only to be developed to bring a large increase 
of industrious population, millions of additional wealth and profitable labor for 
our poor. I would recommend mature reflection upon the matter, and that 
we avoid hasty action concerning it. Free and full consultation with our citi- 
zens should be held, and their matured views as to the best means for the ac- 
complishment of the work should be ascertained, and only after being assured 
of the hearty co-operation and consent of our people, and that no embarras- 
ment would result to our finances should we commit ourselves in this behalf" 
Three months later (April, 1870). he read a special message to the council, 
showing the benefits to be derived from manufactoiies, alluding to the fact that 
the city was threatened with law suits for failure to comply with its water con- 



414 . History of Augusta. 



tracts, aiul urging the council to take the matter of enlargement into careful 
consideration. ihe subject was referred to a committee of four, one from each 
w.ird. On hViday, April 29, 1870, this committee, consistint^ of Messrs. Lewis, 
Hissell, ]51ack, and Walsh, held its first meeting. There were also present sev- 
eral prominent citizens, who were invited to attend and participate in the de- 
liberations. A resolution was passed instructing the mayor to appoint a com- 
mittee of five citizens to co-operate with the select committee from council, 
and to repoit at a subsequent meeting. Under the resolution that the mayor 
appointed the following committee : Dr. W. H. Tutt, Dr. L. A. Dugas, VV. V. 
Herring, J T. Hothwell, and Thomas G. Barrett. The movement progressed 
gradually. The cost of enlargement from the then ca[)acity, fifty feet wide and 
seven feet deep, to a width of one hundred and fifty feet, and a depth of eleven 
feet, was estimated at $384,093, and the citizens, then just emerging from the 
reconstruction period, hesitated to shoulder the burden. In thespringof 1871 
Mayor Estes asked for authority to have a siuvey of the enlargement and an 
estimate of the cost of the work made. The authority was granted and the 
survey made by Mr. Oimstcad, and on August 7, 1871, the mayor submitted it 
in a special message to the council. August 2 1, 1871, the c.mal committee re- 
ported in favor of submitting the question of enlargement to the people, and it 
was accordingly submitted and adopted by a large majority. The work was 
commenced in March, 1872, and completed in July, 1875, at a cost of $972,- 
883.15. ^^''- ll<^>ll'-'y was the engineer in charge, and the enlargement was 
done under the immediate supervision of Mr. h.stes, who was mayor during the 
entire time. 

The dimensions and capacity of the canal are as follows: Length of main 
canal or first level, 7 miles, and including second and third levels, 9 miles. 
MinimuiTi waterway. 150 feet at surface, 106 feet at bottom, and il feet deep, 
making an area of cross section of 1,408 square feet. The bulkhead, locks, 
dam and other structures arc composed of stone masoniy formed of granite 
rock, laid up in hydraulic cement mortar, and are of the most substantial char- 
acter. The area of openings for the supply of the canal amounts to 1,463 
square feet, and the entire waters of the Savannah River are made available for 
maintaining the supply. There are about 275 acres of reservoirs exclusive of 
the canal proper and the pond above the bulkhead and dam. There is a bot- 
tom grade or descent in the main canal of one hundredth ot a foot in 100 feet, 
giving a theoretical mean velocity of two or seventy-four one hundredths feet 
per second, or a mechanical effect under the minimum fall between the first 
and third levels, or between the first level and the Savannah River, below Rae's 
Creek, of upwards of 14,000 horse-powers, theoretically, not including avail- 
able supply from the surface of the reservoirs. This constitutes a work in width 
and depth in excess of any similar work in the world, save the Suez Canal. 
Of the immense power available, 5,700 horse-power is in use on the first level 




^y,^^^^ 



Manufactures. 415 



and 1,700 on the second — the third being waste water. The fall varies from 
33 to 33^ feet on the first and 1 1 to 9^ on the second level. The entire 
cost of the work from the first has been about $1,500,000, the enlargement 
alone costing $972,883. 

Mr. Charles Estes, the mayor under whose administration the enlargement 
was carried on, had from boyhood been familiar with canals, and had super- 
vised the construction of a section of the Genesse Valley Canal, and with un- 
tiring energy pushed the work until, in all except length, Augusta had a canal 
of dimensions equal, if not indeed superior, to the famous Erie Canal. 

This enlargement resulted in the establishment of a large number of new 
factories. The cotton was grown at the mill door, and the mill had cheap and 
reliable power. In Augusta the relative advantages of the North and South 
as the location for cotton factories are well demonstrated. We cannot better 
speak of those advantages than in reproducing the substance of some inter- 
views published a few years ago of some prominent Augusta experts. Mr. 
Francis Cogin was for many years superintendent of the Augusta Factory, and 
when asked his experience in regard to the relative advantages of the two sec- 
tions for cotton manufactories, replied as follows: 

"There is no question but that the South possesses vastly superior advanta 
ges in many ways. We have one of the best climates in the world. The at- 
mosphere has just the proper humidity for manufacturing purposes. Now at 
the North the air becomes so dry that steam has to be introduced into the 
weaving room to dampen the atmosphere, so as to prevent the threads from 
breaking. We never have any such trouble as that here Again, the mills 
North often have to stop because the water courses are frozen up. This never 
happens at the South, and we can therefore run uninterruptedly. We can get 
a plenty of excellent white labor. In fact it is much better than that which the 
Northern mills now have. It is equal to the "Yankee labor" the Northern mills 
used to have, but which they don't get now. We can make more yards of cloth 
per loom than they can, running the same number of hands that they do, and 
we can, therefore, afford to sell it cheaper. Our water-power is plentiful and 
cheaper on the average than at the North. They can't begin to compete with 
us where they use steam. It costs less than six dollars per horse power here 
for water, while at Fall River, where steam is used, the cost is forty- two dol- 
lars per horse-power. It wouldn't pay the Augusta factory, for instance, to 
use steam instead of water if all the necessary fuel was put down at the factory 
free. The operatives in the Augusta factory work eleven hours a day. There 
is a superabundance of white labor here, and we have never had a machine 
stopped for want of help during the nineteen years I have been with the Au- 
gusta factory. If we were to start a mill the same size as ours to-day, we would 
have sufficient skilled labor in two weeks to run it." 

Mr. Cogin's testimony is valuable from his long and intimate acquaintance 



4i6 History of Augusta. 



with cotton manufacturing North and South, having been engaged in factories 
both in New Hampshire and Georgia. 

The Graniteville F"actory, heated in South CaroHna, a short distance from 
Augusta, and largely owned by Augusta stockholders, is a very successful insti- 
tution under the careful management of Mr. H. H. Hickman, of Augusta. His 
views coincide with those of Mr. Cogin. He sa3's there could be no compari- 
son between the North and South as respects advantages for cotton manufac- 
turing. The South would eventually drive the North out of the market in 
brown goods, standard sheetings and shirtings. Practically, it was doing it now. 
The North is building no new mills for the production of these goods. When 
Northern mills were compelled to sell their goods at cost, he could sell at a fair 
profit. He had no commissions to pay agents to buy cotton as Northern mills 
did, because he bought it himself half of it right at the mill. Getting the cot- 
ton right here he had, of course, no freight to pay as was the case with the 
Northern mills, and he was satisfied that he could buy cotton to a better ad- 
vantage than the agents of those mills; in fact he was assured he made a half 
a cent a pound that way. He could get a plenty of white labor, and cheaper 
than Northern mills could. His operatives could live on half the expense of 
those at the North. The latter used four times as much fuel, at twice the 
price per cord, while provisions were as cheap here as in Massachusetts. 

To sum up therefore, labor was cheaper ; second, the operatives can live 
cheaper; third, he has no commissions to paj- to buy cotton; fourth, the larger 
proportion of goods are sold without paying commission ; and, fifth, he can 
run his mills all the year. The Graniteville Mill has not stopped work two 
weeks in eleven years on account of water or weather. He finds sale for eighty 
per cent, of his products at home. He had sold $60,000 worth of goods to 
Knoxville alone in one year. He has built a new mill at Vancluse with the 
surplus of the Graniteville Company without cahing on the stockholders for a 
dollar, and will be able to run it at three-fourths the expense in proportion to 
its size that it costs to run the Graniteville because it is a modern mill, with all 
the modern improvements. Graniteville is one of the most difficult mills in 
the country to run because it has been pieced from time to time, and yet peo 
pie can see how successful it is. 

Mr. William C. Sibley, president of the Langley Mills for a number of years 
after their organization in 1870, says: "I have no difficulty in getting as good 
and reliable white labor as there is in New England, and who cheerfully work 
eleven hours a day, and could obtain more if we had any use for them, and 
many of them are Southern born and have learned their trade in our mill." 
He thought the South had the best climate for manufacturing, and would chal- 
lenge any mill in New England to show as great a production of goods per 
loom and yarn per spindle, on the same style of goods, or a cheaper cost of 
manufacturing. In brown sheetings, shirtings, and drills the South has com- 



Manufactures. .j^ 



peted successfully with New England. Some years since the United States 
awarded the contract for sheeting needed for Indian supplies to the Langley 
Mills for three years. 

We have already mentioned that in 1845, the same year in which the Leg- 
islature incorporated the Augusta Canal Company, a cotton manufacturing 
company was chartered under the name of " The Augusta Manufacturing 
Company." Martin M. Dye, John P. King, John Bones, William M. D'Antig- 
nac and Amory Sibley were made commissioners to procure subscriptions. 
The capital stock was fixed at $500,000 in $100 shares, and for the first three 
days after the opening of the books, of which notice was to be given in the 
newspapers of Augusta for one week, no one was to be allowed to subscribe 
for more than one hundred shares. After the expiration of that period the 
limit was to be removed. At the time of subscribing, the subscriber was to pay 
to the commissioner a sum to be fixed by them of not less than five nor more 
than ten per cent, of his subscription. As soon as $50,000 had been paid in 
the company was authorized to commence business. It was "authorized to 
manufacture, bleach, dye, print and finish all goods of which cotton or other 
fibrous materials form a part; also to manufacture flour from wheat or grain of 
any kind, and all machinery used for such purposes or any other; and may 
erect such mills or other works as may be necessary to carry on their business " 
The stockholders were made liable for the debts of the incorporation in pro- 
portion to the number of shares of stock held by them, provided the debts did 
not exceed half the capital stock paid in; if they exceeded that amount, the 
stockholders were jointly and severally liable for the entire debt. It was further 
provided that no transfer of stock within six months of a failure of the com- 
pany should exempt the transferring stockholder from liability; and, further that 
the proper officers of the company should semi-annually, in April and October 
make a return on oath to the governor, of the amount of capital actually em- 
ployed, with the names of the stockholders and number of shares held by each, 
and a statement of the condition of the company. 

In 1847, or immediately after the completion of the canal, the Augusta 
Manufacturing Company was organized. As originally constructed, the" fac- 
tory was 218 feet long. 50 feet wide, and five stories high, with 200 looms and 
5,280 spindles, turning out 9,000 yards of cloth a day. The pickery was three 
stones high, and comfortable houses were provided for the operatives. At first 
the enterprise flourished. In 1849 the home demand exceeded the supply and 
an increase of spindles to 10,000 was necessitated. The capital stock paid in 
seems to have been $200,000. The success of this experiment, the first on a 
large scale, to emulate Northern manufactures, led to an agitation in favor of a 
second factory, but after a while the opening promise of the company failed to 
sustain itself The business began to fall off, and difficulties thickened around 
It. In 1858 a number of capitahsts of Augusta, firmly assured in their own 



4i8 History of Augusta. 



minds of the ultimate success of cotton manufacturing in the South, and be- 
lieving tliat the difficulties environing the Augusta Manufacturing Company- 
arose from causes which they could obviate, associated themselves for the pur- 
chase of the corporate property. The price agreed on was $140,000, payable 
in ten equal annual installments. To provide a commercial capital the new 
company put in $60,000, and in 1859 obtained from the general assembly an 
act conferring upon them the charter privileges of the old McBean Company. 
The purpose in so doing was evidently to obtain a greater freedom of corpo- 
rate action than was possible under the Augusta Company's charter. As will 
be borne in mind, the McBean Company was incorporated in 1850 for the pur- 
pose of engaging on the waters of McBean Creek, "in the manufacture of va- 
rious fabrics composed of cotton or wool, or both ; also for working in wood or 
iron, or other metal, and for operating a grist-mill and saw- mill." The char- 
ter did not contain the personal liability clause found in the charter of the Au- 
gusta Manufacturing Company, nor the requirement of semi-annual reports to 
the governor. 

The act of 1859 provided " that from and immediately after the passage of 
this act, James Hope, William E. Jackson, and their present associates in the 
manufacturing business, to wit: James Hope, Artemus Gould, and Joseph E. 
Fargo, as executors of the last will and testament of George M. Newton, de- 
ceased, Henry H. Gumming, William M. D'Antignac, Lambeth Hopkins, Ed- 
ward Thomas, Germain T. Dortic, Thomas Barrett, Benjamin H. Warren, Will- 
iam A. Beall, George W. Evans, and Charles J. Jenkins, and their successors, 
be and they are hereby authorized to conduct their manufacturing operations 
under the charter of the McBean Company within the limits of the city of Au- 
gusta, in said State, and that their corporate name be, and is hereby changed 
to that of the Augusta Factory." 

The Augusta Factory was therefore established in an unique way, namely, 
with the stockholders and equipment of the Augusta Manufacturing Company, 
with the charter of the McBean Company, and with a new name dififerent from 
the corporate style of either one of those companies. 

On the re- organization in 1858 Mr. William E. Jackson was made presi- 
dent of the factory, and held that position uninterruptedly until his death in 
1882. From the first the Augusta Factory was a success. The $60,000 paid 
in as a commercial capital by Mr. Jackson and his associates named in the act, 
was all they were ever called upon to pay. The purchase money of $140,000 
was paid out of the profits. In 1865 a stock dividend of 200 per cent, was de- 
clared, increasing the capital stock from $200,000 to $600,000, and for a num- 
ber of years a quarterly dividend of five per cent., or 20 per cent, per annum, 
was regularly declared and paid. The financial stress of 1873 and several suc- 
ceeding years injuriously affected the dividends, but from 1865 to 1876 divi- 
dends in an amount equal to 198 per cent, on the capital stock, or 18 per cent 



Manufactures. 419 



per annum, were paid the stockholders, whilst investments in real estate, new 
buildings and new machinery were made in the sum of $460,000. All this 
without the sale of new stock or a call on the stockholders. From the ist of 
July, 1865, to the ist of July, 1880, inclusive, the dividends actually paid to 
stockholders aggregated $1,470,000, or 234^ per cent, on the stock of $600,- 
000 in sixteen years, which is an average of 14^2 per cent, per annum. In ad- 
dition to this, out of the earnings the buildings have been twice enlarged, im- 
mense quantities of new machinery bought, and long rows of operatives' houses 
built of brick, at a cost of $460,000, so that now the factory, with its real es- 
tate, is valued at $1,000,000, while a surplus of over a quarter of a million 
stands on the credit side of profit and loss. 

It has been sometimes said that the success of the Augusta Factory has 
been due to a combination of peculiarly favorable circumstances. In the first 
place the new management obtained at a cost of $140,000, on very long time, 
an immense amount of valuable real estate, and buildings and machinery in 
good order, which must have cost at least a quarter of a million dollars. Then 
the new management had scarcely taken hold before the war broke out. Cot- 
ton goods at once rose enormously in price, and a ready market was offered 
for every yard that could be produced the instant it left the loom. The cur- 
rency became highly inflated and out of this currency the factory was readily 
enabled to pay the purchase money in full, without waiting the times of the 
installments. While there is truth in all this, it is also true that the capitalists 
and business men of Augusta did not attribute the success of the factory to 
these peculiar and abnormal conditions. It was and is felt that the real cause 
was the natural adaptability of the city to cotton manufacturing operations. 
The success of the factory continued unabated after the war. It continued to 
sell every yard and to pay its regular quarterly five per cent, dividend long 
after the war, and while with the increased number of mills its profits was not 
what they were, it is still a solid and prosperous institution. The present value 
of the factory, with real estate, is $1,000,000. The following figures relating 
to the mill, and showing its large scale of operations, will be of interest: Cap- 
ital stock, $600,000; bonded debt, $200,000; number of hands employed, 700; 
average pay roll, $170,000 annually ; average consumption of cotton, 13,000 
bales ; number of looms, 800 ; spindles, 26,000 ; average pieces made, 3 1 5 ,000 ; 
average yards, 15,000,000; average yearly product, $1,000,000. 

The next cotton- mill was The Enterprise Factory. Before 1873 the site 
of the present mammoth Enterprise Cotton Factory was a small old stone mill, 
which had long reposed on the old canal, and ground for its neighbors its slen- 
der lots of flour and meal. Following the widespread financial paralysis of 
1873 the construction of this Enterprise Factory — most fitly named — was at 
once a gallant rally from the depression of a panic, and for the city the first 
utilization of her enlarged canal and water power. It was the evoking from 



420 History of Augusta. 

disaster a vital cotton factory of 14,000 spindles, using annually 6,500 bales. 
In February, 1881, it was resolved to increase the capacity of the mill. The 
capital was enlarged to $500,000, the spindles increased to 30,000, and the 
looms to 640. In the latter part of 1882 the work was done, and the finished 
factory stood ready for the operatives. The cost of this great establisment, over 
500 feet in length, was the astonishingly low figure of only $660,000. There 
are several marked advantages in the construction and operation of this superb 
cotton-mill. It extends from south to north, and thus gets ihe benefit of the 
earliest and latest sunlight, saving gaslight morning and evening — a matter of 
economy and comfort. The wheels of the factory are located in the center, 
affording a better distribution of power over the establishment. The goods 
manufactured are four yards to the pound, instead of three to the pound as is 
the general practice of our Southern mills. The yarn is 18 to 20, instead of 
12 to 14 as is custofnary. This is the finest cloth made m the South, and be- 
ing an exceptional grade and excellence of goods, finds a readier market. An- 
other especial advantage is that the looms are made for yard wide goods, but 
can be changed to manufacture narrower goods if desirable, and thus can vary 
the product to suit any demand. 

For the fiscal year 1884 the figures of this mill were: Average number 
hands, 466; average number of looms running, 573i; average number of yards 
a day made, 31,295 ; average number of yards per loom, 54-n)-o- ; production, 
all 4-4 goods, 9,670,160 yards; production, pieces, 192,332; production, 
pounds, 2,500,311 ; cotton bales consumed, 6,312. The present figures are, 
hands, 412; spindles 31,000; production, 10,803,809 yards of cloth, and 6"] ,- 
881 pounds No 18 and I9yarn; consumption of cotton, 6,593 bales, 3,106,401 
pounds. 

The Sibley Manufacturing Company was organized May 26, 1880. This 
factory stands next above the John P. King mill, on the canal, and occupies 
the site of the old Confederate powder-mills, the lofty chimney of which still 
stands as a memorial obelisk of its former use. The structure is 532 feet long. 
'j6 feet wide, with a picker- house separate, 164 feet, and furnished throughout 
with automatic sprinklers and the electric light. The motive power is gained 
from two large turbine wheels, each of which furnishes six hundred and fifty 
horse-power, thirty-three and one half feet fall being applied to the wheels- 
The machinery includes 35,136 spindles, 880 looms, equal to about 1,000 plain 
looms, of which 224 are for colored and 650 are for plain work, the former be- 
ing of the Crompton and Bridleburg pattern, the remainder the Lowell, vary- 
ing in width from thirty to sixty-four inches Also a fine dye-house and a full 
plant of the most approved machinery for reeling, dying, winding etc., for col- 
ored warps. The goods manufactured include checks, chevoits, plaids, tick- 
ing, convict stripes, and cottonades, awning stripes, sheeting, drills, and ducks, 
convict drills, and kersey. The value of the annual product of the Sibley is al- 



Manufactures. 421 



ready $1,100,000. Eight hundred hands are employed at $196,000 annually, 
and 13,000 bales of cotton are consumed. 

The John P. King Manufacturing Company was organized in 1882, with 
Hon. Charles Estes at its head. When this enterprise was inaugurated there 
were those who doubted whether the mill would ever be built, but with Mr. 
Charles Estes, to whom, by universal consent, the work of organizing the com- 
pany was intrusted, there is no such word as fail, and in an incredibly short 
space of time the John P. King Manufacturing Company was an accomplished 
fact. The majority of the stock was secured in Augusta and the balance in 
Northern cities, and in a few months the King Mill lifted its walls along that 
canal which is another monument to Mr. Estes's judgment and foresight. The 
King Mill stands to-day one of the most perfect cotton factories in all its de- 
tails in the United States. It is four stories high, 453 feet long, and 'j^ feet 
wide, a splendidly proportioned building, admired and commended by every 
architect and manufacturer who has seen it. The precautions against fire and 
the facilities for extinguishing it are such that the danger from this source is 
reduced to the smallest minimum. All the machinery is of the most improved 
description, and it was bought with the greatest advantage to the company. 
It is a noteworthy fact that the actual cost of the mill and machinery was with- 
in the original estimate; something that doesn't often occur. The capital stock 
of the King Mill is $1,000,000 and its capacity is 26,500 spindles. The first 
bobbin of yarn was spun October 18, 1883. CapitaHzed in $1,000,000, the 
King is situated just east of the Sibley Mill, 454 feet long, 'j6 feet wide and four 
stories high. Brick and wooden houses are provided for operatives, and the 
Augusta and Knoxville Railroad runs immediately in its rear. Manfacturing 
was fairly commenced in the latter part of 1883, and has continued uninter. 
rupted and successfully ever since. The product consists of sheeting, shirting 
and drills in 7-8 and 4-4 goods, which are of the best quality, and have already 
achieved an excellent reputation on the market. Six hundred hands are em- 
ployed, and the pay roll averages $130,000 per year; 96,500 spindles and 
880 looms are operated, and a total of 10,000 bales of cotton consumed annu- 
ally, turning out a product of about 15,600,000 yards a year. 

The Riverside Mills, located picturesquely upon the Savannah River, at 
the foot of Eleventh (Kollock) street, and on Bay, between Marbury and Tat- 
nall streets, holds a peculiarly prominent, valuable and exceptional position in 
our suberb cotton-mill system of Augusta. It affords an opportunity for util- 
izing in a convenient way the waste of our galaxy of large cotton factories, and 
thus fills a momentous place among our industries. 

Some twenty years ago, in 1869, Mr. Charles W. Simmons did a small 
business in waste, corner Kollock and Ellis streets. Mr. Simmons then built 
a waste factory, corner of Cumming and Bay streets, in 1872, which was burned 
down in 1875. In 1876 he built the nucleus of the present splendid establish- 



422 History of Augusta. 



ment, the lower section of the factor)', 117 by 74 feet, in which he made only 
waste and batting. He failed in the latter part of 1878. This factory was 
called Riverside Factory. Mr. W. E. McCoy bought out the establishment 
early in 1879, and has been the creative spirit of this useful enterprise. He 
added a jarn mill, 80 by 70 feet, three stories high, and a picker room 60 by 
30 feet, two stories. In October, 1881, he organized a stock company, and 
put the enterprise upon a lar^e basis, changing the name to the Riverside 
Mills. He immediately added 105 feet to the main building, and constructed 
an engine and boiler-room 80 by 24 feet. In 1883 he enlarged the main 
structure by an addition 40 by ^6 feet. The mill is now a large and thoroughly 
organized, well conducted and profitable establishment. It is run by steam. 
It has a Harris- Corliss engine of 250 horse- power. It consumes 200,000 
pounds weekly, or 10.400,000 yearly. Its capital stock is $200,000; hands 
employed, 250; annual wages, $56,640; yearly product, $414,284. The arti- 
cles produced are cotton waste for wiping machinery and packing boxes, jour- 
nals, etc., paper stock, cotton batting of all grades, hosiery yarn, cotton rope 
and pieced bagging. 

The Warwick is a new name for an old mill — the Shamrock that was. The 
mill has jjassed into new hands, and is splendidly equipped in every way. It 
was built in March, 1882, at the he.id of Lake Olmstead, at a point known as 
Rae's Creek, and is furthest up the canal of the mills. It has 2,500 spindles 
and 1,000 twisted spiiulks. The mill is a one-story brick building, employs 
fifty hands, and the annual output is 180,000 pounds. They manufacture only 
2o's to 40's, I, 2, 3 and 4 ply. In the addition to the manufacture of fine 
yarns, connected with the Warwick mills is a roller covering shop, which does 
an extensive business, covering 200,000 spindles, and is patronized by the 
largest mills in the South. 

The Algernon is one of the best equipped yarn mills in Augusta. The 
building is three stories high of brick, with metal roof, 200 x 50 feet, with dje- 
house, picker-house and boiler house, all complete. The mill operates 4,410 
spindles and 1 50 looms, and employs 160 hands. It manufactures check 
plaids, seersuckers, vvra[)ping twine and cotton rope. The yearly product is 
234,000 yards of cloth, 143,000 pounds of rope and twine, valued at $213,823. 
The annual pay roll is $46,148. The mill has just completed a large brick 
metal roof, one-story building, to be used for office, dyeing and storing pur- 
poses — size I I 5 -x 35. The company owns its operatives' dwellings, which 
are occupied solely by its employees. 

Situate on one of the most eligible sites on the canal is the Globe Mills. 
They manufacture yarns, etc., run 4,600 spindles, and employ 80 hands. The 
value of their aimual product is $125,000, and they pay out in wages from 
$15,000 to $20,000 annually, and consume about 25,000 bales of cotton. 

The Dartmouth, the youngest of the mills, was built in 1887. The build- 




^•V^FliH^HKans itBroNT 




Manufactures. 



423 



ing is a three-story brick building, 200x70. In the upper story 9,100 spin- 
dies are at work, one pair of mules, spooling machine and twister. Every- 
thing in the mill is complete, the machinery being selected from the best of a 
number of mills. It pays out in wages annually about $25,000, and employs 
one hundred hands. The mill is valued at $150,000, and the annual product 
is in the neighborhood of $150,000. It manufactures yarns alone, numbering 
from eight to twenty-six. 

This long list of flourishing mills is the work of the past ten years, and is 
largely due to the Augusta Factory. During all the period of depression from 
1873 to 1878 it manufactured cotton goods profitably, to say nothing of the 
large profits made before and since that time, while Eastern mills did not make 
profits during that period of depression. 

We call attention to the results achieved by the Augusta Factory during 
the memorable years of the panic — 1873 to 1878, inclusive. In the studying 
this table, which is correct to a cent, the reader should bear in mind that some 
of the best established Northern mills were forced to suspend during this period. 

Work of the Augusta Factory for Five Years — Beginning June 7, 1873, 

AND Ending June 15, 1878. 



Year Ending. 


Gross 
Earnings. 


Dividends. 
Declared 
and Paid. 


Bales of 

Cotton 

Consumed. 


Aggregate 

Cost 
per Poun d 


Aggregate 
Wages Paid. 


Aggregate 
Sales Made. 


June 20, 1874 

June 19, 1875 


$119,069 ID 

56,068 10 

104,424 09 

116,328 28 

130,647 -]■] 

$526,837 80 


$108,000 
36,000 
48,000 
36,000 
48,000 


6,469 

7.150 

10,460 

11,177 

11,819 


15.21 
14.84 
12. II 
10.49 
10.02 


$162,757 54 

97,864 41 

180,177 04 

162,957 44 

162,090 38 


$761,767 13 
606,651 34 
924,848 35 
870.518 70 
885,033 41 


June 17, 1876 


June 14, 1877 

June 15, 1878.. 






$276,000 


47.075 




$766,146 81 


$3,948,918 93 



The dividends paid during this period equaled 4 per cent, of the capital 
stock, ($600,000), or average of 9.510 per cent, per annum. 

The Graniteville and Vaucluse Mills, while located in South Carolina, are 
not far from Augusta, and are generally mentioned among the Augusta mills, 
so large a portion of the capital involved and so many of the gentlemen inter- 
ested in their management belonging to Augusta. In reality while there are 
two separate establishments, both are one property, the Vaucluse being simply 
a new plant belonging to, and built out of the earnings of, the Graniteville. 
The history of this mill puts in a strong light the adaptability of the South to 
cotton manufacturing. 

In 1847 the Graniteville Mill was built at a cost of $375,000. Additions 
were made to it and the capital stock increased until in the year 1867 the cap- 
ital stock had been swelled to $716,000, the shares had fallen in value to $62.50, 
and the company owed $50,000 debt. The mill was run down, the stock de- 
preciated and the industry languishing. It was in this bad condition in 1867 



424 History of Augusta. 



when Colonel H. H. Hickman was elected president of the company, starting 
it on an unparalleled career of recuperation and prosperity. His work was 
marvelous. He put the enterprise upon its feet. He infused new life into its 
management. He cut down expenses, increased its business, re^^ulated its op- 
erations, handled it with vigor and skill, and gave it a bouyant financial vitality. 

First. He restored the depreciated stock to its proper value. 

Second. He canceled $i 16,000 of the capital shares, buying them up at a 
cost of $162,000 their enhanced value under his management, and thus perma- 
nently reduced the interest-bearing stock of the company from $716,000 to 
$600,000, its present amount. 

Third. Five years ago, out of the surplus of the earnings, he built a new 
factory, the Vaucluse Mill, at a cost of $361,513.24, without calling for one 
additional dollar of assessment from the stockholders, and added this income- 
producing property to the value of the original $600,000 of stock. 

Fourth. He has now a cash surplus in reserve of $220,831.86, which added 
to the $361,513.24 put into the Vaucluse Mill, makes the regal amount of 
$582,345.10 that he has created and i)ut on to the property of the company, 
as a test of his thrift, skill and enterprise as a cotton- mill manager. 

Fifth. He has in addition to these splendid betterments and accumulations, 
running over half a million dollars, paid regularly a ten per cent, dividend to 
the stockholders. 

Sixth. He increased the production of the original Graniteville Mill just 
double, swelling it from 240,000 yards every fortnight to 480,000. The two 
mills now present the following condition of strength : 

Capital stock $ 600,000 

Property Represented. 

Graniteville Mill and 8,000 acres land $ 600,000 

Vaucluse Mill and 2,000 acres land 400,000 



$1,000,000 
(This includes 350 operatives' houses, and eight storeliouses for rent.) 

Graniteville Mill, spindles 23,600 

Vaucluse Mill, spindles 10,000 

Total spindles 33,6oo 

Graniteville Mill, looms 590 

Vaucluse .Mill, looms 312 

Total looms 902 

Hands 75° 

Production. 

Bales. Pounds. 

Graniteville Mill 9,315 4,191,583 

Vaucluse Mill 3,723 1,675,211 



Total used yearly 1 3,038 5,866,794 



Manufactures. 425 

Pounds Cloth. Yards. 

Graniteville Mill 3.563,837 11,183,835 

Vaucluse Mill 1,423,926 5,264,500 

Total 4,987,763 16,448,335 

Gross Profits. 

Graniteville Mill $ 82,724.69 

Vaucluse Mill 37. 131-31 

Total profits $120,856.00 

Net profits 80,701.71 

Net profits, 13-5^ per cent, on $600,000 capital. The mills manufacture 3-4 
C. shirting, 7-8 R. R. shirting. 4-4 E. E. sheeting, 7-8 brown drills, 4-4 A. A. 
sheetings, 4-4 L. L. sheetings, S. S. brown drills, and flour sacks and grain 
bags. 

On April 3, 1885, the owners of Southern and Southwestern cotton-mills 
met in Augusta and organized the Southern and Western Manufacturing As- 
sociation, and Mr. Hickman, president of the Graniteville Mills, was made its 
presiding officer. 

The building of the milis had, as might be expected, a marked effect on the 
population of Augusta, and the disbursement of nearly a million dollars a year 
in wages has been of great benefit to the trade of the city. It has been found 
that the concentration of a factory population has not been injurious to the 
health of the operatives. The only contest between capital and labor occurred 
in 1886, when upon a strike at one of the factories, all the others combined in 
a " lock-out." Both sides remained obstinate from June to November, when 
mutual interests happily brought about a reconciliation. 

Prominent among the manufacturing interests of the city is the Georgia 
Chemical Works, organized May 5, 1877, with a paid up capital of $200,000. 
The manufacture of fertilizers, the specialty of this company, began in Decem- 
ber, 1877, and the works have been in constant operation ever since their estab- 
lishment, the demand for their fertilizers becoming so great as to require an 
enlargement of the works to nearly double their former capacity, increasing it 
from 10,000 to 17,000 tons per annum. The manufactory proper is a huge 
building, three and a half stories high, 130 feet long and sixty feet wide, its tall 
chimney being 1 14 feet high. It is supplied with an elegant lOO horse-power 
engine and the best machinery. The acid chambers are the most interesting 
and expensive portion of the works. These are lined with lead, in order to re- 
sist the action of the sulphuric acid used in the reduction of the ground phos- 
phate rock and bones, the principal ingredients of the fertilizer. The lining of 
each chamber weighs 120,000 pounds or sixty tons. Two new chambers have 
been recently added, one of which is 106 feet long, 37 feet wide and 22 feet high; 
the other being 32 feet long, 32 feet wide and 25 feet high. The building con- 
taining the acid chambers is seventy feet high. On the first floor of this build- 
54 



426 History of Augusta. 



ing is the furnace for burning the sulphur in the preparation of the acid. In 
the manufacture of their fertihzers the company use sulphur from Sicily, pot- 
ash salts from Germany, phosphate rock from the West Indies and South Car- 
olina, bone and other animal matter from the slaughter-houses of the North, 
West, and South, fish from the Virginia coast, and nitrate of soda from South 
America. The process, in brief, is as follows : The phosphate rock is crushed 
by a powerful crusher, then ground into a fine powder by burr mills, and is 
then carried to the third floor by machinery, where it is weighed into the mixer. 
The bones are crushed by separate machinery, ground into a fine powder on 
the third floor, and go into the mixer. The mixer holds one ton of fertilizer, 
every ingredient being carefully weighed before going into it. From the mixer 
it falls to the second floor where it is subjected to the action of the acid and 
dries. The disintegrator and screw finish the work. The grounds occu- 
pied by the works consist of twenty acres. There are also several large ware- 
houses, four new ones having just been built and one being in contemplation. 
The largest of these new warehouses is 200 x 50 feet, two others being 150x50 
feet, and the smallest being 100 x 50 feet. Two railways carry material to and 
the products from the works. The products of these works are the Mastodon 
Guano, Grain Fertilizer, Lowe's Georgia Formula, Dissolved Bone Potash and 
Acid Phosphate. These products have already acquired a widespread repu- 
tation. This company also import and sell all kinds of fertilizing ingredients. 
This company also import all of their material by the cargo. Their phos- 
phate rock they bring from the Navassa Islands in the Caribbean Sea ; their 
nitrate of soda they buy from Peru and Chili ; genuine Leopoldshall Kainit 
comes from Germany ; the sulphur direct to their chamber from Mount Vesu- 
vius ; dried blood, they bargain for at Western slaughter-houses, and bone drifts 
into their mills by the carload from every section ; all of these important and 
costly ingredients go to make up one of the finest fertilizers manufactured, 
adapted to every crop, and suited, by different brands made, of different qual- 
ity, to every kind of soil. No dirt or foreign substance is put into these com- 
pounds to fill up in bulk or weight, the base of the fertilizer is dissolved bone- 
phosphate in every instance. The original capacity of the works was 10,000 
tons of commercial fertilizer. Since then the capacity of these successful 
works has been nearly doubled, and they can now mannfacture 18,000 tons 
of fertilizer. 

The success of this enterprise has been based on the idea of manufacturing 
a fertilizer suited to the soil on which it is to be used. P'or some ten or twelve 
years prior to the organization of the works the progress of Southern planting 
had been marked by the general introduction and intelligent use of commercial 
fertilizers. The adoption of artificial stimulants for the soil did not spring from 
unnatural causes any more than their continuance has led to unprofitable meth- 
ods of farming. The acceptance and use by Southern planters of prepared 



Manufactures. J^^2f 



guanos was necessitated by the demands of the soil. For generations the lands 
of this section had been worked upon their own resources and drained of the 
best elements of plant food. Season after season the most exacting crops have 
been gathered from these fields, and so exhausting had been the cultivation of 
anU belluni days, that even the most skillful rotation of crops would not have 
built up the worn out lands. Thousands of acres were being deserted or al- 
lowed to lie fallow, while much time and labor were being sacrificed to pre- 
pare new lands for cotton. Another cause contributed to the adoption of some 
method of recuperation for old lands or of securing continued productiveness 
on the new. Labor, after the war closed, was neither as plentiful nor as relia- 
ble as before. The land cultivated by the cotton planter, although reduced in 
area, had to bring the same returns as the liberal acreage and diffusive meth- 
ods had before commanded. Every acre then had to be doubly productive at 
least. 

Such was the planting status of the South. The utilization of good stable 
manure or of home-made fertilizers, so far as they went, were wise expedients. 
Obviously, though, no farmer could make enough by home composting, rak- 
ing or scraping, for all his worn out lands. Stock could not be kept for this 
purpose alone, else the stables be as expensive as the stalls of Lorillard ; and 
the preparation of home fertilizers could not be made as simple or as complete 
as would have justified its employment in the planting economy of the South. 
What, then, was to be done ? The planter recognized that he must draw else- 
where for those factors of plant-food which his crops had been annually carry- 
ing ofT and which he had not the resources to replace. Such, then, was the 
time and such the season for the introduction and use of commercial fertilizers, 
the tonnage of which, year by year has been increasing over our railroad lines, 
and the use of which, despite various abuses and impositions of importers and 
dealers, is enlarging with the pitching of every crop. That the farmer has had 
much to contend against in the past use of commercial fertilizers, cannot be 
denied. The first shipments were concentrated articles from foreign shores or 
Northern factories, mixed up with acids and bone dust, high priced and in- 
tense, and no more adapted to the needs of the Southern farmer's lands than 
to the lining of these farmers' pockets. These guanos, made upon theoretical 
formula, and mixed upon general principles, could not be entirely satisfactory. 
They supplied articles in excess which were not needed, and left out consti- 
tuents which were very important. They were sacked indiscriminately for use 
in New York, New Jersey and the tobacco lands of Virginia, the wheat lands 
of Ohio, the black loams of Mississippi, the clay lands of Alabama and Geor- 
gia, or the swamp bottoms of Florida and the Carolinas. Such planting pro- 
cesses, could not hold their own, and when the farmer found himself taxed 
heavily to pay for these homogeneous failures his condition seemed nearly as 
deplorable as first. But even this difficulty was destined to be met. It occurred 



428 History of Augusta. 



to Mr. George W. Graflin, of Baltimore, and General M. Stovall, of Augusta, 
in 1875, that a home-made and a home adapted fertilizer was what the farmers 
of Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas needed. To supply this the works were 
established, and by their success have vindicated the foresight of their founders. 

Nearly sixty years ago the first ice company in Augusta was incorporated. 
Augustine Slaughter, William M. Rowland, Charles Labuzan, Joseph Wheeler, 
John C. Holcomb, and George W. Butler were incorporated in 1832 as the 
Augusta Ice Company. No capital stock was named and the act gives no hint 
as to the modus operandi of the company. 

In 1837 the Jackson Street Ice Company was incorporated. The preamble 
of the act states that the persons thereinafter named had " formed an associa- 
tion for the purpose of supplying the inhabitants of the city of Augusta with 
ice." The capital stock was $10,000, in shares of $50 each. The corporators 
were Noah Smith, Oswell E. Carmichael, Kerrs & Hope, Benjamin W. Force, 
Lewis D. Ford, Martin Frederick, Thomas J. Walton, Samuel Clarke, Samuel 
Hale, John G. Winter, Robert D. Hamlen, Kitchen & Robertson, Peter Golley, 
Isaac Henry, Snowden & Shear, Pleasant Stovall, F. Lamback & Co , Elisha 
Foster, Noah B. Cloud, Albert W. Smith, J. S. Clarke, Sacker P. Turpin, 
Thomas Richards, Hubbell W. Risley, Thomas H. Plant, Augustus B. Long- 
street, Augustine Frederick, John V. Cowling, George M. Thew, Isaac Moise, 
James Frazer, John Moore, Benjamin B. Kirtland, Frederick A. Morgan, John 
J. Jones, Benjamin Sims, and B. L. Nehr. 

The business of these early companies was doubtless the importation and. 
sale of natural ice from the North, but during the war, when that means of sup- 
ply was cut off, necessity, the mother of invention, led to the manufacture of arti- 
ficial ice in the city, and by 1864 a factory on a small scale was in active oper- 
ation. The works were on Greene street, near Wilde or Forsyth streets, and 
were managed by Major I. P. Girardey. The product was exclusively devoted 
to the hospitals and the sick, and would doubtless be now derided as a very 
poor article of manufacture. In those days it was priceless. It was veritable 
ice, and carried comfort to many a fevered bed-side and to many a wounded 
soldier. The ice was made in cylinders about two feet long and from five to 
six inches in diameter. The chemical agents used were not strong enough to 
convert the entire cylinder into a solid block, and it came out in the shape of 
a pipe about an inch and a half thick. Probably not more than 500 or 600 
pounds were made per day, and in fact the manufacture was not carried on 
with much regularity. The time chosen was late in the afternoon, and then 
the few cylinders were eagerly seized and carried ofT. Lucky was the well 
person who could manage to secure a piece three or four inches long. This 
primitive ice was only semi-transparent. 

Now two ice companies, the Polar Ice Company and the Augusta Ice Com- 
pany, do a flourishing business, turning out huge blocks as clear as crystal at 



Manufactures. 429 



a rate which supphes the city and has cut off the importation of the Northern 
article. The Polar Ice Company was organized in 1888, and the Augusta 
Company in 1887. 

As early as 1850 an effort was made to utilize the Augusta Canal for the 
manufacture of machinery. In that year William M. D'Antignac, John M. 
Adams, Lambeth Hopkins, James M. Poe, and William H. Turpin, jr., were in- 
corporated as the Augusta Machine Works, " for the purpose of manufacturing 
agricultural implements, cotton, wool, and the machinery necessary for the fab- 
rication thereof, locomotives, etc." The act states that the works were to be 
operated by water power, and that a site had already been secured 

The works of this company operated in a small way for a number of years, 
and about twenty years ago fell into the hands of George R. Lombard & Co., 
who have made them an immense establishment. The shops are among the 
largest and best equipped in the South. Everything in a mechanical way, for 
use or ornament is turned out, from the finest, most delicate and intricate fac- 
tory work to the heaviest railroad material. More saw- mill work is done here 
than at any point in the South. Gin ribs and gear, never heretofore made in 
this section, are manufactured, as also many classes of fine work heretofore or- 
dered from the North. The work for the Augusta, Langley, Graniteville, En- 
terprise, and Jewell's factories, for the Georgia and Port Royal J^ailroads, for 
the Georgia Chemical Works, and the Augusta Flour Mills is done here. An 
immense variety of machines is kept, among them some of the finest in the 
South Connected with the shops is a foundry. The iron ore is brought from 
North Georgia, and is considered as pure as any in the world. About 3,000 
pounds of castings per day are made. Bed plates of 6,000 pounds weight have 
been cast, but one of 10,000 can be made. The assortment of patterns in this 
foundry is said to be one of the finest in*- the United States, and the railing 
work is quite celebrated for neatness. There is also a boiler shop, where boil- 
ers are repaired or built. 

The Pendleton Machine Works, managed by Charles F. Lombard, have 
been in operation since 1865, and manufacture steam engines, brass work, pip- 
ing, turbine wheels, agricultural machines, gins, gearing, belting, and a large 
variety of mechanical appliances. Both these establishments use the water- 
power of the Augusta Canal. 

Close by the Augusta Factory are the Augusta Flouring Mills, with an an- 
nual capacity of 50,000 barrels of flour, and 200,000 bushels of meal. Among 
the established manufactures of Augusta of honorable age, highest repute, and 
admitted excellence are the Excelsior Flour Mills, a strong five-story structure 
located on the second level of the Augusta Canal. The mills were built in the 
year 1859 on an extensive plan. They ran upon the old stone system, mak- 
ing 200 barrels of flour a day until the year 1881, when the patent roller pro- 
cess, so extensively used in the North and West was adopted. The mills use 



430 History of Augusta. 



seventeen sets of the new rollers, and turn out from 200 to 250 barrels of flour 
a day. 

The Perkins Manufacturing Company and Jesse Thompson & Co., do an 
immense lumber business. The former employs 500 men, pays out $150,000 
annually in wages, and sells 16,000,000 feet of lumber every year. It has mills 
in Burke and Screven counties which supply it with lumber transported over 
its own railroad to the line of the Central Railroad, and thence to Augusta. 
Jesse Thompson & Co. have large saw- mills at Midville, Ga., which are con- 
stantly at work turning out lumber for this market from the best pine timber 
that the State affords. This lumber is brought to Augusta by long train-loads 
to meet the constant demand for doors, sash, blinds, moldings, brackets, new- 
els, balusters and similar articles. 

For nearly forty years Augusta has turned out a brick acknowledged to be 
superior to anything made south of the Potomac. The main establishment 
known as the old Delaigle brick-yard is situate upon the southeastern border 
of the city, being a broad expanse of land, bounded on the west by the Cen- 
tral Railroad, east by the Georgia Chemical Works, South Boundary street and 
the Port Royal Railroad track. There are worked within these yards three 
steam revolving brick-makers, which are fed with finely prepared clay, which 
is obtained in richness and profusion. Indeed so inexhaustible is the supply 
that for several generations to come ample material will be afforded to run these 
works. The brick are evenly and substantially shaped in this steam press, and 
automatically turned out at the rate of sixty a minute. They are then carted 
away upon smooth platforms and piled up in the sun to dry. After three or 
four days these brick, which are of yellowish tint and moderate degree of hard- 
ness, are skillfully arranged in intcrsticial layers within the great kilns, which 
are fired from beneath, and this enclosed, is allowed to burn for seven days, 
then cooled down, and the strong, well- tempered, we may say, red fire-bricks, 
are ready for shipment. Several furnaces, or kilns, are in use, which alternate, 
the one being fired up while another is in use or cooling down. 

It is well known that Augusta- made brick are the finest and best manufac- 
tured south of the Potomac ; and these yards furnish two-thirds of the brick 
used in Augusta in private and public buildings, not including the factories; 
they supply the cities of Charleston, Savannah and Atlanta, and all interme- 
diate points. Visitors to Atlanta have only to notice the fine business block 
between the Kimball and Markham Houses, opposite the Union Depot ; the 
magnificent new store of Moore & Marsh, and the rising walls of the new City 
Hall, to detect the fine brick of the great Augusta manufactory. These yards 
employ 150 men and turn out about 15,000,000 brick a year. 

Outside of the main interests which have been mentioned there are many 
minor manufactories, the total manufacturing capital being $8,000,000, of 
which amount $5,525,000 is in cotton. 




■/Vifamt hErvyi 




UL.^^ 





Manufactures. 43 1 



Augusta is emphatically a cotton town, and destined to be even a more im- 
portant center for the staple than it is now. The increased receipts year by 
year are a notable feature. This increase is not caused, as in many other mar- 
kets, by any extension of railroads or by much increased facilities of transpor- 
tation. On the contrary, some of the cotton which formerly came to this mar- 
ket was diverted by unjust railroad rates, obtainable in the northwestern and 
western portions of the State ; not only on direct shipments north and east, 
but even to the South Atlantic sea-ports. The increase is due mainly to the 
admirably intelligent progress made by a majority of the planters. 

First. By a more universal and more discriminating use of fertilizers, where- 
in happily home-made composts and manures are assuming a larger propor- 
tion every year. 

Second. By the more general distribution of labor, through the slow and 
gradual, but, therefore, the more certain extension of the small farm system, 
naturally producing a more thorough and careful cultivation. 

Third. The energetic and determined efforts the planters make to save the 
crops earlier, of which fact the picking of the last crop was an astonishing 
proof 

Fourth. The enterprising introduction of all improved agricultural imple- 
ments. 

We venture to say, without fear of contradiction, that in no section of the 
cotton belt has agricultural science made greater progress than in this section 
of the State of Georgia, of which no further proof is needed than, that, while 
before the war the average production was about one bale to 4^ acres, now 2^ 
acres produce the same amount of cotton. The destination of cotton from Au- 
gusta points to almost every market in the world. 

Some years since the destination of the year's receipts was ascertained and 
the same substantially obtains now save as to the mill demand. The figures 
were: To mills north and east, 44,000 bales; to foreign ports direct, mainly 
to Liverpool, Havre and Bremen, 72,000 bales ; to Savannah and Charleston, 
on account of exporters' orders, and free on board, 54,000 bales ; to cotton 
mills in and about Augusta, 33.000 bales; total, 205,000 bales. 

Of the cotton sent to foreign ports, large quantities are on orders received 
from spinners direct in all parts of Europe, including England, France, Ger- 
many, Spain, Italy, Austria and Russia, through agencies established by ex- 
porters in the leading ports. The home demand for mills is largely over double 
figures above given. 

We have already spoken of the great progress of this section in cotton cul- 
ture, and must now speak of the quality and handling of the cotton sold in 
Augusta. In no part of the cotton belt do planters use more perfect gins and 
presses than in the one we are treating of, it being seemingly the ambition of 
all to possess the best. Small sized gins, driven by mule or horse-power, are 



432 History of Augusta. 



being discarded, and the gfciieral tendency is to use laig;er gins, driven by steam 
or water-power. The natural result is a greater uniformity and smoothness of 
the staple, making it far more desirable for spinning th.in under the former 
method, when the movement of the gin w. is jerky aiul uneven. Hy this means 
cotton is ginned tuore rapidly, as well, and the earl\' movement of the erop is 
promoted. Ihe quality of our staple is excellent, and is being constantly en- 
hanced b\' improved seed, and the enrichment of the lands by manures, 
rhouiih, perhaps, not as strong and wiry as the staple produced in the Missis- 
sippi \^ille\', or in parts of Alabama, Louisi.uia and Te.\as, it is usually brighter, 
smoother, tleciiledl\' cleaner, ami much freer from leaf Many a spinner, who 
prefers the so-called western staple for its strengtli, buys the handsome cottons 
we can sent! them to mix with it, and thereby secure a color and brightness 
of the goods which western cottons tlo not give. And experience has denion- 
strateii that owing to the more perfect handling of our cottons, their superior 
ginning and cleanliness, there is no more wastage in oui- cottons than in the 
average run of western cottons. 

That this cit\- is the best inlaiui cotton center in the United States is due 
to a variety of favoring causes in addition to those just mentioned. Some we 
may state. First, her factors guarantee prompt sales and settlements. The 
rule among our ci^tton men ditVering from the methods of procedure in all in- 
land market^ ami at the ports, in that cotton sales are for cash, enabling the 
factor to settle at once with the planter, and at the same time rendering all 
transactions perfectly safe It is .i tact worth)- of note that no planter can get 
his mone\' in Charleston or Sa\ annah iov sever.d days after effecting a sale. 

The influences which combine to create the demand for cotton in Augusta, 
and which in every month throughout the year uphold a strong tone in the 
market and a stiff quotation in prices, putting us within a small fraction of the 
coast thiring the reguhir cotton season, and advancing us beyond the piM'ts the 
rest of the time, are peculiar to Augusta and <ire of paramount value. 

In the first place, then, in common with all other markets, we are open tor 
ordeis tVom Northern mills, and have buyers here who ha\'e been )-ears in the 
business ; are well known to all the prominent spinners north, and are ener- 
getic to bring to this market ortlers for cotton. Cotton is purchased in Au- 
gusta for New England spinners, and the advantage of this market will not be 
ignored in this res[KXt. Connected with this interest are buyers who fill or- 
ders for exports loc.ited at the ports and various points. 

Hut the cotton market here is not solely dependent upon these agencies. 
Ten years back ci>tton houses in this city opened correspondence with foreign 
markets direct. The result was that our advantages were readily recognized 
and there is now a large market for direct export to Europe. Half a dozen 
houses here have correspondence with Europe, and fill orders for spinners in 
Great Britain, Russia, Italy, France and Germany, etc. 



Manufactures. 



433 



Augusta has advantages of five ports to draw from — Norfolk, Wilmington, 
Charleston, Port Royal and Savannah — and if cheapness and accommodation 
in ship freights cannot be secured in one place, competition opens up storage 
room and places a variet}^ of sea bottoms at our disposal. This position is of 
value inestimable. The fact that Augusta is nearer the coast than interior 
points gives her advantages over them in rates to the coast ; the fact that she 
is just far enough from the coast to spread out before her this wide choice of 
tonnage is saving facility. 

One element which has sprung up of late years to bolster up Augusta's cot- 
ton market, and which has given it a reputation throughout the Southern 
States, is our local milling demand. With the extension of our long established 
cotton mills, and the building of new ones, this demand for home consumption 
has grown to be a factor which has worked phenomenal results. Not only do 
the buyers for Augusta factories get tbeir takings from the Augusta market 
but the three large factories in Carolina are also dependent upon our supply. 
Throughout the year this demand continues. In the active cotton months it 
is a competitive agent with Eastern and export buyers, and gives a variety as 
well as strength to the demand. A constant seeking for lower grades is of- 
fered for all mixed packed, irregular or light bags. At no point in the South 
are irregular cottons and low grade goods so high-priced relatively as here. 

The cotton product of the Georgia and South Carolina counties adjacent to 
Augusta is as follows : 



Baldwin 

Burke 29,172 

Clarke 3.3K' 

Columbia • 8,313 

Elbert 8,826 

Glascock 2,635 

Greene 1 2,448 

Hall 5,000 

Hancock 15,010 

Hart 5.094 

Jefferson 13.377 

Johnson 3.321 

Lincoln 3,861 



Georgia. 
7.921 



McDufifie 7,439 

Madison 5.917 

Morgan 7,355 

Newton. 7,796 

Oglethorpe 1 2,336 

Richmond 2,742 

Rockdale 4.385 

Screven 6, 166 

Taliaferro 4,754 

Walton 1 2, 538 

Warren 7.885 

Washington 23, 508 

Wilkes 11,109 



Total 232,925 

South Carolina. 



Abbeville 26,380 

Aiken I4,334 

Anderson 21,807 

Barnwell 28,764 

Edgefield 35.894 



Greenville 17,064 

Laurens 24,484 

Lexington 9.050 

Spartanburg 24,188 



Total 202,055 

232,925 



Bales cotton tributary to Augusta 434,c 



434 History of Augusta. 



One of the incidents of the cotton business is "futures." The courts frown 
on and moralists denounce this practice. Some years since a cotton man fur- 
nished the press of Augusta the other side of the question, and we here give 
the matter from his standpoint. 

Many persons have a prejudice against dealing in cotton futures under the 
idea that it is all pure speculation, believing that the contracts represent no 
value at all, but are only a kind of bet on the market, whether prices will ad- 
vance or decline. 

To show how incorrect this idea is we give here the form of contract as now 
used in the New York Cotton Exchange : 

No. CONTRACT A. 

Office of 

Nfav York i88. . 

Bought for M 

Of M 

50,000 Ib.s. in about ONE 
HUNDRED Square bales Cotton, growth of the United States, deliverable from licensed 

Warehouse in the Port of New York, between the FIRST and LAST day of next, 

inclusive. The delivery within such time to be at seller's option, in lots of not less than fifty 
bales upon five days' notice to buyers. The Cotton to be of any grade from Strict Ordinary to 

Fair, inclusive, and if stained not lielow Strict Good Ordinary, at the price of .( ) 

cents per pound for Middling, with additions or deductions for other grades according to the 
rates of New York Cotton Exchange existing on afternoon of the fifth day previous to the date 
of the Warehouse Order. 

Either party to have the right to call for a margin, as the variations of the market for like 
deliveries may warrant. And which margin shall be kept good. 

This Contract is made in view of, and in all respects subject to the rules and conditions 
established by the New York Cotton Exchange, and in full accordance with Article II., Title 
IV., Chapter Second of the By-Laws. 

Respectfully, 

Per 

For and in consideration of One Dollar in hand paid, receipt whereof 

is hereby acknowledged accept this Contract with all its obligations and 

conditions. 

By study of this contract it will be seen that whoever buys this contract 
when the month named therein arrives will leceive the cotton, and have it for 
sale or use as surely as if he had bought bales and stored them away, the ful- 
fillment of all contracts being secured by the margins put up. And on the 
other hand, any one who sells such contracts against cotton he expects to pro- 
duce or receive, when the month named arrives, can deliver his cotton on this 
contract and receive the price named with perfect certainty. 

The contract is simply a contrivance of the mercantile world, by which par- 
ties dealing in or producing any article may secure a fixed price, at which, on 



Manufactures. 435 



a certain date in the future, they may buy the articles desired or sell the articles 
produced. And so far from being purely speculative, they afford a means of 
eliminating speculation from very many business operations. 

For instance — first, the producer. Intelligent planters generally know at 
about what price their cotton crops pay them fair profits. If, during the sum- 
mer months, contracts for delivery during October, November, December, 
should be saleable in New York at a figure that will secure to the planter the 
net price that he has found profitable, is it not a prudent business transaction 
to assure himself of this by selling a contract for the probable amount of his 
crop ? If he does this, then his profit is certain ; if he does not, then he spec- 
ulates as to what price he will get when the great bulk of the crop is pouring 
into market with its tendency to depress prices. His selling the future con- 
tract is not speculation ; it is an avoidance of speculation. When the months 
arrive he can deliver his cotton on the contract, or, if more convenient or prof- 
itable, can sell his contract for delivery in New York to other parties there and 
market his cotton at home. To merchants who supply planters the contract 
system offers a valuable safeguard against loss. The merchant furnishes to 
the planter fertilizers and the supplies necessary to run them during the sum- 
mer, for which he is to receive in return a certain quality of cotton. Knowing 
the cost of supplies furnished he knows what price for cotton received will give 
him a fair profit, and, should he at any time be able to sell contracts for fall 
delivery at such price by making sales to the extent of his profitable receipts, 
he secures his profits and relieves his business from one of its most serious risks. 
The planter or merchant who wishes to store and hold cotton with the hope of 
higher prices produced by local scarcity in the summer can often make sure of 
his profit by selling at once contract for delivery in summer to hedge his pur- 
chases. These contracts always bear a premium at least equal to the expense 
of carrying cotton. This premium disappears as the cotton months arrive, and 
while in itself in the local market commands as good or a better price, the con- 
tract can be sold at a good profit. Besides the.se dealings in contracts thus far 
mentioned, none of which are speculative, there is a very large business done 
by parties who buy because they think the market will advance, or sell, expect- 
ing a decline. 

They operate in contracts for cotton rather than in cotton itself, because the 
expenses are infinitely less. The contracts pass from hand to hand, and one con- 
tract may cover many transactions — but when it matures it is good for the cotton. 

These dealings are speculation only so far as it is speculation to buy or sell 
anything, not for or»e's use, but from an expected profit from advancing or de- 
clining markets, whether the article dealt in be cotton, grain, stocks, houses, 
land, or anything whatsoever. The man whose correct judgment and prudent 
management bring him fortune out of such transactions is esteemed a good 
business man, whilst the one whose judgment was faulty, or whose operations 
were top extended, resulting in loss, is condemned for speculating. 



436 History of Augusta. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

TRANSPORTATION. 

Early Epoch — Pack Animals — Peltry Trade — Indigo — Tobacco — Inspection System — To- 
bacco gives way to Cotton — Wagon Trade — "The Georgie Cracker"^ — Chief Justice Stokes's 
Account— Wagon Yards — The River Trade — Hammond's Sketch of the Savannah — Neglect 
of this Great Waterway — Disputes as to Boundary — South Carolina vs. Georgia in the Conti- 
nental Congress — A Federal Court Ordered — Convention of Beaufort — First Improvement Act 
in 1786 — The Savannah Navigation Company Incorporated in 1799 — Concert with South Caro- 
lina Solicited — Navigation Acts of 1802, 1809, and 18 12 — Another Appeal for South Carolina 
Co-operation — River Commissioners — Appropriation of $30,000 in 1818 — The River Im- 
proved — South Carolina Co-operation — The Convention of 1823-25 — Congressional Assent not 
Obtained — Co-operation Fails— Operations from 181 5 to 1826 — South Carolina Prefers to Rely 
on Railroad Transportation — Collapse of the Inter-State Convention — Fisheries Acts — Sketch 
of South Carolina Legislation on Savannah River — Federal Appropriations from 1826 to 1838 
— The Anti-Internal Improvement School of Politics — The Savannah Valley Convention — Its 
History, Personnel, and Action — The Augusta Chronicle Suggests Such a Convention — Me- 
morial to Congress — Hammond's Topographical Sketch — A Trip Down the River — Picturesque 
Scenes — Danger Points on the River — Regulations of the Pole Boat Trade— The Steamboat 
— William Longstreet, its Inventor — The First Crude Model — Steamboat Act of 1814 — The 
Steamboat Company of Geoigia Chartered in 1817 — History of the Company — Complaint of its 
Monopoly — South Carolina Competition — Legislative Investigation and Report — Hamburg vs, 
Augusta — The Steamboat Company Given Canal and Railroad Franchises in 1833 — Charter 
Extended in 1834 — The Iron Steamboat Company — The Savannah and Augusta Steamboat 
Company — Union Steamboat Company — Augusta, Petersburg, and Savannah Steam and Pole 
Boat Navigation Company — Augusta Steamboat Company of 1887 — Phases of Steam Naviga- 
tion Development — Roll Call of Steamboats for Seventy Years — List of Casualties — Burnt, 
Blown Up and Sunk. 

IN the matter of transportation Augusta has, in the long course of one hun- 
dred and fifty years, experienced the same succession of epochs as are often 
crowded into a twelvemonth out on the plains. In the far West the pack horse 
and flat-boat first appear, then the wagon and steamboat follow, and, lastly, 
the railroad furnishes transportation to the city which yesterday was not and 
to-day is a populous center crowded with spires and domes. What happens 
there as if by magic, was slowly wrought out here in the lapse of many years. 
The first trade of the city was by long trains of pack animals which brought 
peltries, and some few other articles, from the Indian hunting grounds into 
town, whence they were shipped by boats of about a ton burden down the 
river to Savannah, and thence to England. From the nattire of the articles 
dealt in, spring was then the busy season of Augusta, as fall and winter are 
now. that cotton is the staple. It appears that the early trade was from 300 
to 500 tons of peltries annually, making, with the Indian goods, such as cali- 



Transportation. 437 



coes, powder, rum, salt, ironware, etc., brought up the river for barter, a trafific 
of some 1,000 boat-loads a year. It is quite probable, though we have no 
positive information on the subject, that the boats employed at this early period 
were somewhat on the barge or flat-boat order, and considerably more capa- 
cious than the Petersburgh boat of the present day. They were worked by 
means of poles thrust to the bottom of the river, and, as will be hereafter seen, 
the first crude idea of the steamboat, as worked out opposite Augusta some 
half century later, was the propulsion of vessels by the use of poles worked by 
steam instead of hand. 

After the Indians had been pressed back from the country on the west 
bank of the Savannah until the peltry trade became of minor importance, in- 
digo and tobacco rose into importance and formed the bulk of the city's export 
trade. Just prior to the Revolution the cultivation of indigo, or indico, as it 
was sometimes termed, was quite general. Two objections were urged to this 
crop, first, that it impoverished the soil, and, secondly, that the rotting of the 
steeped weed engendered diseases. The first objection, in a new country 
where virgin soil could be had almost for the clearing, was not much con- 
sidered, but in 1774 an act was passed in relation to the second. By this 
statute all persons concerned in the planting or making of indigo were required 
to bury or destroy the weed within forty-eight hours after the same had been 
taken out of the steeping vats, under a penalty of five pounds sterling for each 
failure. By subsequent legislation this act was continued of force until some 
time after the independence of the United States had been recognized by 
Great Britain. The process of manufacture was by obtaining a strong solu- 
tion by steeping and then reducing this by evaporation to solid form, when the 
indigo was packed in barrels or casks and so shipped. 

Tobacco was much more extensively cultivated than indigo, and was, in 
fact, the great staple of Georgia until the invention of the cotton-gin brought 
cotton into overwhelming prominence. The main tobacco area was the 
country immediately contiguous to Augusta, or the counties of Richmond, 
Columbia, Lincoln, Elbert, Franklin, Warren, Jackson, Oglethorpe, Greene, 
Wilkes, Hancock, Warren, Burke, Jefferson, and Washington. In this territory 
fourteen warehouses for the inspection of the leaf were ordered to be estab- 
lished, but it appears that the three warehouses at Augusta, which were known 
respectively as Call's, Richmond, and Augusta, and were in active operation 
prior to 1791, did the bulk of the business. The inspection season opened on 
the 1st day of October in each year, and closed on the 31st day of July follow- 
ing. The grades at first established were three in number, called respect- 
ively Oronoco, Sweet Scented Leaf, and Stemmed Leaf. Subsequently the 
classification was in four grades, called grade one, two, three, and four. If 
the inspectors found the leaf " good, sound, merchantable, and clear of trash," 
they were to weigh the same and see it packed, or repacked, in hogsheads or 



438 History of Augusta 



casks not to exceed forty-nine inches in length and thirty-one inches in the 
raising head, to be well coopered with at least six hoops, and to weigh at least 
950 pounds net. The inspectors were to brand the cask " Georgia," and mark 
thereon the name of the warehouse where inspected, the quality of the leaf, the 
net weight, and tare. Hogsheads thus passed were called "full crop; " if of less 
than the required weight were marked "light crop." All tobacco failing to pass 
inspection was to be burned or otherwise destroyed. The inspector's fees were 
two shillings per hogshead, and the coopers were entitled to one shilling and 
sixpence. Where it was necessary to pick over tobacco in order to save that 
of standard quality, the pickers were entitled to a salvage of ten per cent. 
There was also what was known as " transfer tobacco," that is, tobacco deliv- 
ered at the warehouse by the planter to order of his creditor. This was in- 
spected and casked in the ordinary manner, and delivered to the creditor on 
production of his transfer receipt, less a commission of eight per cent, for 
"cask, shrinkage, and prizing the same," prizing being the addition of sufficient 
tobacco to " light crop " hogsheads to bring the same up to the standard of 
950 pounds net. The inspectors and pickers were sworn to a faithful perform- 
ance of duty, and were subject to prosecution if they purchased, or engaged 
in the manufacture of tobacco while in office. Much of the tobacco was 
brought to market by the unique device of " rolling hogshead," that is by a 
hogshead stoutly coopered, to which a pole or shafts were attached, so that 
the cask was trundled along by horse- power like a large garden roller. 

With the rise of cotton culture that of tobacco decreased. The present 
square cotton bale fastened with iron ties was then unknown. Cotton came in 
in round bags of from 200 to 250 pounds weight, about ten feet long and eight- 
een inches in diameter. A strip of bagging about ten feet long was cut off and 
sewn together at the side and bottom. Into this the lint cotton was packed and 
pounded as closely as possible and the top then sewn up, not forgetting that at 
the top and bottom ears or lugs were made, and ordinarily filled with cotton 
seed, for convenience in handling. With the rise of the cotton crop it became 
necessary to wagon the bales to market, and hence great attention was paid to 
the making of roads. Law after law was enacted with a view to good roads, 
and the wagon trade of Augusta became something immense. We have heard 
old citizens say that they have seen Broad street so closely packed with cotton 
wagons during the season that from market to market, a distance of a mile, one 
could walk on the top of the bags. Six mules or horses was the ordinary 
equipment of a wagon, and the lead animals were not thought well harnessed 
unless each had a chime of bells attached to his collar. The drivers of these 
long caravans had also further music to beguile the way. It was considered an 
accomplishment to be able to crack the whip so as to keep a sort of time, and 
as at the end of his long journey the jehu drove into town, it was his pride to 
come down the street snapping the lash first on one side of him and then on 



1'ransportation. 439 



the other in a perfect fusilade of pistol-like reports. PVom this peculiarity 
some have supposed the name 'cracker" has its origin, but this is a mistake. 
The "Cracker" was known in Georgia as far back as Colonial times, and in the 
interesting work of Anthony Stokes, royal chief justice of the province, there 
is a curious account of those then known by the term. It is by no means com- 
plimentary, and was doubtless deeply colored by the recollections of the roy- 
alist judge of the deadly work of the "crackers" rifle in the war against King 
George. He says: "The Southern States are overrun with a swarm of men 
from the western parts of Virginia and North Carolina, distinguished by the 
name of "Crackers." Many of these people are descended from convicts that 
were transported from Great Britain to Virginia at different times, and inherit 
so much profligacy from their ancestors that they are the most abandoned set 
of men on earth, few of them having the least sense of religion. When these 
people are routed in the other provinces they fly to Georgia, where the win- 
ters are mild, and the man who has a rifle, ammunition and a blanket can sub- 
sist in that vagrant way which the Indians pursue ; for the quantity of deer, 
wild turkeys, and other game there afibrds subsistence; and the country being 
mostly covered with woods, they have it always in their power to construct 
temporary huts, and procure fuel. The eastern coast of Georgia, in which they 
plant rice, is at this time thinly settled on account of the emigration of loyalists, 
and the greatest portion of the inhabitants are negro slaves; whereas, in the 
western parts the inhabitants are numerous, and daily increase by the acces- 
sion of the Crackers from the other provinces; and it is highly probable that 
these people will in time overrun the rice part of the country as the Tartars in 
Asia have done by the fruitful cultivated provinces in the southern parts of 
that country. What induces me the rather to think so is that during the 
king's government these Crackers were very troublesome in the settlements 
by driving all gangs of horses and cattle to Virginia, and committing other 
enormities. They also occasioned frequent disputes with the Indians whom 
they robbed and sometimes murdered; the Indians in return, according to 
their custom, murdered the first white man they met by way of retaliation. . 
. . During the civil war the Americans lost much of that apprehension 
which they formerly entertained of the Indians, for the Crackers who are des- 
titute of every sense of religion which might withhold them from acts of per- 
fidy and cruelty, have been discovered to outdo the Indians in bearing hunger 
and fatigue, and as they lead a savage kind of life, they are equally skilled in 
the arts of bush-fighting and discovering the enemy by their tracks. These 
men will naturally settle fast in the western part of North Carolina and Geor- 
gia, and as the Indians dwindle away before them, they certainly threaten ruin 
to the civilized parts of the rice colonies, which have not now a common par- 
ent to call to their assistance." 

As if resenting the ill character thus given the Georgia Cracker by Chief 



440 History of Augusta. 



Justice Stokes, though they had doubtless never heard of such a person or his 
diatribe, the wagoners felt highly insulted if called crackers, and we have heard 
of one instance from an old citizen which illustrates their detestation. Dur- 
ing one cotton season while the town was full of wagons, a lady had occasion 
to ask a store-keeper if he had any crackers. Quite a number of wagoners, 
also intent on trade, were in the store, and never having seen or heard of 
such an article of food as crackers in all their lives, took up the idea that the 
city dame intended to insult them by insinuating that they were Crackers, and 
in high dudgeon one began to flourish his whip, declaring with a round oath 
he would teach the saucy hussy what sort of crackers they were. The alarmed 
storekeeper, the half-fainting lady, and the irate wagoner formed a striking pic- 
ture ; but after many explanations the dealer convinced the man of the back- 
woods that there was not the slightest intention to offend him. 

To accommodate this trade huge wagon yards were established throughout 
the city, the dismantled remains of some of which are still to be seen. In the 
central court-yard the wagons were packed, and in sheds along the walls the 
stock was stabled, while the wagoners were lodged and boarded in buildings 
at the front. Ordinarily a general store, selling provisions and forage was an 
adjunct of the yard, not forgetting a bar-room attached. The once enormous 
wagon-trade of the city has now dwindled down to a shadow of its former self 
Once in a while from some remote section one of the old-time vehicles lum- 
bers heavily in with bells ringing and whip- cracking as of yore, but the sight 
is unusual. The wagon- yards have ceased business, with the exception of a 
few in the outskirts for the accommodation of drovers and a small country 
trade in vegetables, fruits, etc. 

. To carry off the products brought in by wagons the Savannah River was 
the sole reliance. This magnificent but grossly neglected waterway has had 
the misfortune from the earliest period of not having had its great natural ad- 
vantages improved. Some years since Major Harry Hammond, a South Car- 
olina planter, who resides on the bank of this noble stream near Augusta, and 
has given the history of the river long and close study, prepared a paper on the 
subject of great value and importance, from which we cannot do better at this 
point than make some extracts. Major Hammond says: "In one of the regions 
of heaviest rainfall in North America the three States of North Carolina, South 
Carolina and Georgia touch. And here, near where the great Appalachian 
chain takes a western curve before reaching its southern terminus, as if lifting 
its skirts to shake the waters from them, innumerable springs burst from the 
mountain slopes. East and west for a hundred miles spread out like a great 
fan, the water leaps from crag and cliff, uniting into mountain streams and 
swelling rapidly to rivers — the Toxoway, Keowee, Seneca, Tugaloo, Tallulah, 
Toccoa — finding issuance at last in the broad Savannah. Notice their Indian 
names, for here as elsewhere the world over, the oldest languages linger long- 



Transportation. 441 



est in the names of rivers, themselves the oldest features of all countries. 
Older are they than the everlasting hills, for their floo.ls have given to moun- 
tain, hill and plain their shape and bounds, and while hourly molding these 
anew, bear in their currents the life of the region. Southeastward the Savan- 
nah seeks the Atlantic coast. The reverse slope feeds the sources of the Ten- 
nessee, whose waters find exit through the Gulf of Mexico. So narrow is the 
divide between the river systems whose sources here interdigitate, that early 
in this century General Millar, of Rabun county, worked on a canal to connect 
the navigable waters of the Tennessee and Savannah. In 1873 water was 
drawn from Black Creek, a tributary of the Tennessee, to Izell's Mills on an 
affluent of the Savannah. So that before the days of railroads the construc- 
tion of a canal here was one of the plans for a great transcontinental highway. 

"Ascending the Savannah and then the TugalojtJ River for fifty- four miles 
above Augusta, there was found to be an average depth of five feet at low wa- 
ter. But in forty-three places the depth was interrupted and reduced to less 
than three feet by ledges of rock crossing the stream at nearly right angles. 
The length of these interruptions varied at different localities from ten yards 
to one mile, aggregating in all about ten miles. Below these ledges shoals of 
gravel sometimes occur, obstructing the channel for a greater or less length, 
and amounting in all for the entire distance to some four miles of such obstruc- 
tions. The river here varies in width from 200 yards to one mile, the imper- 
vious slate across which it passes preventing the current from scouring out a 
channel and thereby confining the volume of its waters. The total fall is about 
380 feet, giving an average slope of two and one half feet per mile. The aver- 
age velocity is given as from three to seven miles an hour, but it is very varia- 
ble, long stretches of deep still water being interrupted by shallow rapids. 

"The removal of these obstacles and the development of a channel open 
at all stages of the water for navigation has always been considered of great 
importance. Surveys have been made and experts have repeatedly reported 
that the execution of this work was practicable at comparatively small cost. 
As early as 1 795 the Carolina Legislature licensed a lottery to raise ;^ 1,200 to 
improve the navigation from Augusta to Vienna. In 1805 the same body 
made an appropriation of ten thousand dollars for this purpose. And an act 
was passed in 1825 looking to the joint action of South Carolina and Georgia 
for the improvement of the river. Mr. Carson, of the United States Engineer 
Corps, in conformity with an act of the Federal Congress, made a survey of this 
portion of the river in 1879. In his excellent and detailed report he recom- 
mends as practicable the opening of a steamboat channel three feet deep and 
thirty yards wide for lOOt niiles above Augusta, at an estimated cost of $133,- 
000, and the opening of a channel for pole boat navigation fifty and one- half 
miles further, at a cost of $126,000 additional 

"When the Savannah River crosses the last ledge of rocks just above the 

56 



442 History of Augusta. 



city of Augusta it deepens its channel through the soft sands, clays and marls 
of the middle and lower country. Everywhere there is a depth exceeding five 
feet at low water for 273 miles to Savannah except in the first sixteen miles 
below Augusta to Twiggs Bar, where shoals of sand and gravel 13,750 feet in 
length occur, which show barely two and one-half feet at extreme low water. 
There are other shoals of lighter sands in the remainder of its course aggre- 
gating 3,595 feet in length, showing barely four feet depth at extreme low wa- 
ter. Men now living remember when these shoals did not exist. Their growth 
has been caused by clearing off the hillsides of the upper country. The soil 
thus exposed and loosened by the plow is transported by rains and floods in 
vast quantities into the swift current of the stream. When the gentle slope 
below the falls retards the current this detritus of sand and gravel stops and 
chokes up the channel. The growth of these shoals has been greatly accele- 
rated in recent years, and year by year, as wider areas are brought under the 
plow, their growth will be more and more rapid until they permanently obstruct 
the navigation unless removed. In later years the increase of these obstructions 
has caused enormous losses to farmers by elevating the bed of the river so that 
at moderate high water lands are flooded that have hitherto been the most pro- 
ductive cornfields on the Savannah, if not in the whole South. The average 
slope of the stream from Augusta to Savannah is about one-half foot per mile. 
Fortunately between Augusta and Silver Bluff", where the most formidable ob- 
structions exist, the fall is one and one- fourth feet per mile, producing a cur- 
rent, if properly confined and directed, powerful enough to scour out these 
shoals. From Silver Bluff" to Hayne's Cut, the slope is one foot; thence to Steel 
Creek one-third of a foot, and thence to Savannah four-tenths of a foot." 

Besides t|ie advantages held out as a navigable stream, the Savannah fur- 
nishes the water-power that makes Augusta the great manufacturing center of 
the South. The 6,800 square miles above Augusta drained by the river and 
tributaries, is a region of great water powers. A rapid reconnoisance under the 
auspices of the United States Engineer office, made known the existence here of 
120,000 available horse-power. The following are some of the localities where 
more than 5,000 horse-power maybe obtained: Augusta 22,500 ; Trotter's 
Shoal, 21,750; Long Shoal, 18,000; McDaniel's, 6,100; Anthony's, 6,000; 
Bluejacket, 5,800; Portman's, 5,620. There are good reasons for believing 
that a more complete survey would show the existence here of 400,000 horse- 
power, about equaling the aggregate of this description of power employed in 
manufacturing throughout the New England States. 

It has been mentioned that as a waterway the Savannah River has been 
much neglected. The causes of this neglect were, first, the failure of Georgia 
and South Carolina to co operate for its improvement, and, secondly, the rise 
and growth of the railway system. In the first epoch such eff'orts as were 
made were made by Georgia, but after much expenditure of money that State 



Transportation. 443 



ceased its exertions about sixty years ago. What has been done since has been 
done by the general government but in a stinted and unsatisfactory manner. 

The history of the first era is much more interesting than that of the latter 
period. It will be borne in mind that by the royal charter of 1732 there was 
granted to the trustees for Georgia all that part of South Carolina " which lies 
from northern stream of a river there commonly called the Savannah," etc., etc. 
The ambiguity of this description led to frequent disputes as to boundary be- 
tween Georgia and South Carolina. Disputes also arose as to that portion of 
Georgia lying to the north of a due west line from the junction of the Tugalo 
and Kiowee Rivers and as to that portion south of the Altamaha. Some four- 
teen or fifteen years before the outbreak of the Revolution these differences 
were in full bloom, and though the king in council in 1763 sought to compose 
them, the colonists considered the question far from settled. Scarcely was the 
Revolutionary War over than the controversy was reopened. The Articles of 
Confederation provided that disputes between States touching their territory or 
boundaries should be adjusted as follows : On presentation to Congress by any 
State of its petition to Congress, stating its case, and praying a hearing, notice 
was to be given by order of Congress of such petition to such other State, 
and a day assigned for the appearance of the parties by their agents. When 
met, the agents were to select judges for the hearing and determining of the 
mattter in controversy. Should the agents not be able to agree, Congress was 
to name three persons out of each State, and from this list each party was al- 
ternately to strike one, the petitioning State having the first strike, until but 
thirteen were left, out of which not less than seven nor more than nine, as Con- 
gress might determine, were to be drawn by lot, and those drawn, or any five 
of them, were to form the court. If a State refused to attend, or strike, the 
secretary of Congress was to strike for such State. The judgment of the court 
was to be final, and to bind the defendant State whether it appeared or not_ 
The judges were to be sworn " well and truly to hear and determine the mat- 
ter in question, according to the best of his judgment, without favor, affection, 
or hope of reward," and the judgment was to be transmitted to Congress and 
lodged among the acts thereof. 

Pursuant to this provision South Carolina petitioned the Continental Con- 
gress in March, 1785, for a Federal Court to determine a dispute concerning 
boundaries between that State and Georgia, and on the first of June in that 
year, the committee to which the petition had been referred, reported a form 
of notice to the State of Georgia, and recommended that the agents of that 
State and of South Carolina be required to meet for the selection of judges on 
May 8, 1786, which was adopted and so ordered. At the appointed time the 
matter was by mutual consent continued to May 15, and thence again post- 
poned to September 4, 1786, when John Kean, Charles Pinckney, and John 
Bull appeared and produced their credentials as agents for South Carolina, and 



444 tlisTORY OF Augusta. 



William Houstoun, George Walton, and William Few did the like for Georgia, 
whereupon Congress directed them to proceed to the selection of judges. On 
September 1 1, the South Carolina agents reported that they had not been able 
to agree with the agents of Georgia upon the appointment of judges, or time and 
place of trial, and thereupon prayed Congress to proceed " to strike a court 
agreeable to the confederation," Congress ordered the agents of Georgia to 
be furnished with a copy of the report and prayer of the agents of South Caro- 
lina, and on the 13th the former answered that by the act appointing them the 
agents for South Carolina were appointed with plenary powers to adjust all 
questions of boundary with such commissioners as Georgia might appoint with 
like powers, and only in default of Georgia appointing such commissioners were 
the agents of South Carolina to proceed to apply for a court according to the 
Articles of Confederation. It was therefore submitted that the agents for South 
Carolina could not legally move for a court, as sufficient opportunity had not 
been allowed the State of Georgia to decide whether she would appoint com- 
missioners and thus avoid the necessity of a Federal Court. After putting in 
this answer the agents for Georgia, with apparent inconsistency, moved the 
selection by Congress, of a Federal Court, which was granted. On motion of 
South Carolina it was voted that nine names should be drawn, and in presence 
of Congress the following gentlemen were selected by lot as judges, namely : 
Alexander Contee Hanson, James Madison, Robert Goldsborough, James 
Duane, Philemon Dickinson, John Dickinson, Thomas McKeon, Egbert Ben- 
son, and William Pynchon. The court was then ordered to meet in the city 
of New York on the third Monday in June, 1787. 

The court, however, never assembled. South Carolina seems to have re- 
verted to her original idea of settling the matters in controversy without the in- 
tervention of a Federal Court, and Georgia, acceding to the same view, by act 
of February 10, 1787, appointed John Houstoun, John Habersham, and Lach- 
lan Mcintosh as commissioners, with plenary powers to settle and adjust all 
matters of boundary betweeh Georgia and South Carolina with such commis- 
sioners as the latter State might appoint with like powers. South Carolina ap- 
pointed on her part Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Andrew Pickens, and Pierce 
Butler, and these three, with Messrs. -Habersham and Mcintosh, of Georgia, 
Mr. Houstoun declining to concur, concluded the famous Convention of Beau- 
fort, at Beaufort, in South Carolina, on April 28, 1787. The convention was 
duly reported to and ratified by the States of South Carolina and Georgia, thus 
finally closing up the vexed question of boundary. On looking at this con- 
vention we see at least one reason why South Carolina preferred the adjust- 
ment of matters by an inter-State commission rather than by a Federal Court. 
The articles of confederation required the State applying for a court thereunder 
to specify its claim, and that alone the court was competent to try. Now, in 
stating her case to Congress, South Carolina confined herself to the differences 



Transportation. 445 



which had arisen as to the northern and southern Hmits of Georgia, that is to 
the portions north of a due west Hue from the junction of the Tugalo and Kio- 
wee and south of the Altamaha. Nothing was said as the vexed question of 
the Savannah River, or eastern boundary of Georgia, South CaroHna claiming 
ad fihim, or to the middle of the river, and Georgia to the eastern bank. In the 
appointment of commissioners this omission was rectified, both States instruct- 
ing their deputies to adjust all and singular the differences, controversies, or 
disputes existing relative to boundary. 

The convention of Beaufort is in six articles, the first of which provides that 
the Savannah to the Tugalo and then the Tugalo to its intersection with the 
northern boundary line of South Carolina should be the boundary between that 
State and Georgia, reserving all the islands in both rivers to Georgia. Article 
second declares the Savannah and Tugalo equally free to the citizens of both 
States, neither to impose any duty or toll, or offer any hindrance, molestation, or 
interruption to the citizens of the other. Articles third and fourth quitclaim all 
rights the contracting States may respectvely have on the other side of the 
boundary above established. Article fifth confirms grants theretofore made 
between the forks of the Tugalo and Kiowee, on ratification of such grants by 
Georgia and the recording of such ratification in South Carolina within twelve 
months after the date of the convention. The sixth article reserves all rights 
which may have accrued by South Carolina grants south of the Altamaha, this 
reservation being by South Carolina only, the Georgia commissioners consid- 
ering they had no authority to negotiate in this particular. 

The convention of Beaufort is commonly regarded as having conceded to 
Georgia the exclusive ownership of the Savannah River. In the year 1783 the 
Legislature passed an act which declares " that the limits, boundaries, jurisdic- 
tion, and authority of the State of Georgia do and did, and of right ought to 
extend from the mouth of the river Savannah, along the north side thereof, and 
up the most northern stream or fork of the said river to its head or source ;" and 
the general impression is that this was conceded in the convention. There is 
great reason to doubt this. The first of the articles of that agreement says that 
the islands in the Savannah are " reserved " to Georgia. Why reserve them if 
the whole river to the further shore was conceded to Georgia? Again, in the 
second article the navigation of the Savannah from the mouth, "and from 
thence up to the bed, or principal stream of the said river," is made equally free; 
and then it is said that " all the rest of the river Savannah to the southward of 
the foregoing description is acknowledged to be the exclusive right of the State 
of Georgia." In the light of these citations, it is pretty evident that the con- 
vention of Beaufort made the middle of the main channel the boundary, save, 
always, that the islands belonged wholly to Georgia. 

The general belief, however, has been and still is that Georgia owns to the 
further bank of the Savannah. Owing to this persuasion it was for many 



446 History of Augusta. 



years in the early history of the river a received maxim that Georgia must take 
care of her own. It was long before South Carolina would co operate in the 
improvement of the stream, and when she finally agreed to do so it was but a 
few years before the rise of the railway system, and in anticipation of much 
greater benefit from this instrumentality the co-operation was withdrawn alto- 
gether. 

As early as 1 786 the Legislature of Georgia passed an act for the improve- 
ment of the Savannah River froni Rae's Creek, just above Augusta, to Tugalo 
Old Town, by the terms of which commissioners were appointed to clear out 
the river. To supply them with funds a tax was laid on the inhabitants along 
the river, and it was further provided that all sums which had been subscribed 
as well in this State as in South Carolina for the improvement of the river, should 
be vested in the commissioners. After clearing or.t the river they were to put a 
lock at the lower falls and levy a toll of five shillings per hogshead on all Carolina 
tobacco, unless made by a subscriber who had paid in his contribution for the 
improvement of the river. In the next year the convention of Beaufort for- 
bade this discriminating duty on South Carolina shippers, and in the same 
year the Legislature passed an act remitting the home tax, so that the commis- 
sioners had no funds wherewith to work. 

In 1799 renewed efforts were made to improve the navigation of the river. 
By act of February 14 the Savannah Navigation Company was incorporated 
with a capital of $40,000 in $100 shares. Subscriptions were limiied to thirty 
shares and made payable in three years in four equal payments " in gold, sil- 
ver, or bank bills of the United States." The affairs of the body were to be 
managed by nine directors, and when the company had so far improved the 
navigation of the Savannah between Augusta and Petersburg as to allow boats 
carrying fifteen hogsheads of tobacco (weighing at the then standard, 14,250 
pounds) to safely pass with the water at common height, it was authorized to 
charge toll on all traffic up and down the river at the following rates: On each 
hogshead of tobacco, 37^ cents ; each barrel of flour, 4 cents ; lumber, per 
thousand feet, 10 cents ; all other articles, per hundred weight, 2 cents. For 
non-payment of toll, the vessel and cargo were subject to be seized and held 
until payment. The operation of this act was made dependent upon the pas- 
sage by the Legislature of South Carolina of an act incorporating the company 
as a Carolina corporation with the same franchises as in the Georgia act. No 
such legislation being had by South Carolina the act never went into effect. 

By act of February 18, 1799, another attempt was made to enlist South 
Carolina in the work of improvement. In order to remove obstructions to nav- 
igation between Augusta and Savannah, it was provided that the corporate 
authorities of Augusta and Savannah should each appoint three commissioners, 
to form, with such like officers as might be appointed by South Carolina, a 
board for the improvement of the navigation of the Savannah, from Augusta 



Transportation. 447 



to Savannah, with power to collect tolls at Savannah, as a fund for operations. 
The toll list aftbrds an insight into the staples of that day, the rates being, each 
hogshead of tobacco, 50 cents; on each barrel of corn or wheat flour, I2-|- 
cents ; on each barrel of pork, 6\ cents ; on every 1,000 feet of plank or lum- 
ber, 6-j cents; on every 100 bushels of corn, 50 cents; on every hundred 
weight of clean cotton, 12^ cents. Here again the sister State failed to co- 
operate, and the scheme came to naught. 

In 1802 an act was passed which recites that " the keeping open the Sa- 
vannah River is of the greatest importance to the citizens of the back country, 
as well in consequence of navigation as tlie advantage resulting to the citizens 
generally, by having an annual supply of fish therefrom," and that the river 
above Augusta has been almost totally blocked up by numerous dams, where- 
fore it was enacted that it should be unlawful for any person to dam, stop, or 
obstruct the river trom Augusta to the junction of the Tugalo and Kiowee, 
and up the Tugalo to Hatton's Ford, "but that the one-third part of the said 
river, including the main sluice, is hereby declared to remain and continue 
open for a free passage." All dams then in the river encroaching on the por- 
tion thus ordained to be left open were to be removed by January i, 1803, un- 
der a penalty of $20 for each day's failure, and a like penalty was imposed on 
all thereafter erecting dams on the reserved portion. 

In 1809 it was enacted that the main current of the river above Augusta 
should forever remain open for boats and fish, and that no dam, fish trap, or 
other obstruction should extend over more than one third of the river. Vio- 
lations of this act were made indictable offenses, punishable by a fine of $100 
per day, and commissioners were appointed for the counties of Richmond, 
Columbia, Lincoln, Elbert, and Franklin to view any obstructions then exist- 
ing in the river opposite their respective counties, with authority to remove 
the same if found in violation of the act and to call out the />osse coDiitahis, if 
necessary, to aid them. The commissioners for Richmond were George Pear- 
son, Holland McTyre, and John D'Antignac. 

In 18 1 2 still another act of like general purport was passed. It recites that 
the acts previously passed had failed of their purpose, and, for remedy, enacts 
that a board of commissioners from the counties of Richmond, Columbia, Lin- 
coln, Elbert, and Franklin be appointed with authority in said commissioners 
or any one of them, to examine the Savannah, or any part thereof, from Au- 
gusta to the junction of the Tugalo and Kiowee and determine if any such 
obstructions as these specified in preceding acts existed. If so, the commis- 
sioner, or commissioners, had authority to order the owners thereof, or their 
agents or manager, to remove the same in two days, and if not done, to call 
out the militia for that purpose. Half of any penalty imposed was to go to 
the commissioner or commissioners lodging information of a violation of the 
law. 



448 History of Augusta. 



In 1815 an effort was made for concerted action with the State of South 
Carolina looking to the improvement of tiie Savannah above Augusta. The 
act of that year opens with a preamble, that, "Whereas, the improvement of the 
inland navigation of every country is of the first importance to its inhabitants 
in facilitating and extending conmierce ; and, whereas^ the clearing out and re- 
moving the obstructions on Savannah River, would greatly conduce to the 
convenience and interest of the inhabitants settled in the north and north- 
western parts of this State ; and, whereas, the State of South Carolina did, many 
years past, make an appropriation of ten thousand dollars for the purpose of 
improving the navigation of said river whenever the State of Georgia should 
make a similar appropriation." The act then appropriates $10,000 for im- 
proving the navigation of the Savannah River and the headwaters thereof, said 
appropriation to be conditional on South Carolina keeping her offer of a like 
sum open. Andrew Irwin, Richard Gray, John Watkins, William Jones, and 
Dridzel Pace, sr., were appointed commissioners, to confer with such commis- 
sioners as might be appointed by the State of South Carolina a board of com- 
missioners for improving the navigation of the Savannah River. The commis- 
sioners were to appoint a superintendent of the work and were, to begin oper- 
ations at Augusta and thence proceed up the river. .\ 

In 1816 a new set of commissioners for the counties of Richmond, Colum- 
bia, Lincoln, Elbert, and Franklin were appointed to view obstructions in the 
Savannah from Augusta to the Indian line, so far as the same prevented the 
free passage of fish, the penalty for continuing such obstructions after notice 
being fixed at $30 per day. James Primrose and George Pearson were the 
commissioners for Richmond. 

In 1 8 17 James R. Wiley was added to the board of commissioners appointed 
by the above mentioned act of 1815 toco-operate with commissioners from 
South Carolina for the improvement of the Savannah above Augusta, and a 
further appropriation of $5,000 was made for improving the river from Au- 
gusta to Savannah. The same act increases the appropriations for the river 
above Augusta $20,000, conditioned that South Carolina appropriate a like 
amount. In the next year the restriction was removed and the appropria- 
tion of $20,000, as also the prior one of $10,000, was made absolute. In the 
same year, 18 18, the Legislature directed that these sums should be applied as 
follows: From Augusta to Petersburg, $1 5,000 ; from Petersburg to Ander- 
sonville, $8,000 ; and from Andersonville to the mouth of Panther Creek on 
the Tugalo, $7,000. For the Augusta division, Thomas Murray, Ezekiel 
Dubose, Peter Lamar, William Gumming, Henry Shultz, Archer Avery, and 
Marshall Keith were appointed commissioners. The various commissioners 
were empowered to receive any private subscriptions that might be made to- 
ward improving the river, and directed to distribute the same in the above 
mentioned proportions. It was also provided that the commissioners might 



Transportation. 449 



co-operate with such like officials as South Carolina might appoint in event 
she contributed money to the common purpose. In the next year the gover- 
nor was requested to correspond with the executive of South Carolina for the 
purpose of procuring a speedy co-operation of the two States in the improve- 
ment of the river. 

At the next session, that of 1820, the governor informed the Legislature 
that he had addressed a communication to the governor of South Carolina in 
conformity with this request, and, while he had received no answer, had been 
informed by the commissioners in charge of the river from Augusta to Peters- 
burg that the Board of Internal Improvements of South Carolina would co- 
operate with them. At a later period in the session he reports that the com- 
missioners have furnished him with a map of a survey of the river which was 
then in his office. It may be here mentioned that at this session Judge Dooly, 
so famous for his wit, was made a member of the board of commissioners. In 
this year, 1820, it appears that upon the invitation of South Carolina, delegates 
were appointed to confer with delegates from that State on some common plan 
of action for the improvement of the Savannah, but we do not find their names 
nor any report of their action until some years later. 

In 1822 the commissioners appointed to improve the Savannah from Au- 
gusta to Petersburg report no further necessity for expenditures on that part 
of the stream, and were accordingly directed to turn over to the State Treasury 
the unexpended balance of their appropriation of $15,000, the same being 
$4,556.46. 

In 1823 the governor informed the Legislature that he had received a letter 
from the governor of South Carolina indicative of a desire on the part of that 
State of CO operating with Georgia in the improvement of the Savannah. It 
appears that the delegates of the two States had agreed upon a plan of action 
in the shape of a treaty or convention, and the executive of South Carolina 
presented this as a fit basis of union. The convention which was subsequently 
ratified by the two States is in seventeen articles. The substance of these ar- 
ticles was as follows : The governor of each State was to appoint one commis- 
sioner ; these commissioners were within one year after the ratification of the 
convention to make a full survey of the Savannah and Tugalo Rivers and pre- 
pare estimates of the cost of their improvement. They were also to report 
plans for such improvement, and each State was to appropriate $500 for the ex- 
penses of this preliminary work and to compensate its own commissoner. The 
actual work of improvement was to be under the charge of two superintend- 
ents, one appointed by each State, who were to be a body corporate in both 
States under the name and style of "The Superintendents of the Savannah In- 
land Navigation." The superintendents had full power to make any contracts 
deemed by them necessary, which were to be binding on each State to the ex- 
tent of the appropriations made by it. They were also empowered to appoint 
57 



450 History of Augusta. 



and remove at pleasure such engineers, agents, toll collectors, and other officers 
as might be necessary for completing, repairing, or protecting the works or for 
the collection of tolls; to establish rates of toll, always provided that no dis- 
crimination should be made in favor of or against the boats or trade of either 
State ; and provided, further, that in case there should be worked in either 
State any mine of iron, lead, or coal, or any quarry of lime, gypsum, marble, 
or other building stone, the State in which such mine or quarry was situate 
was to have the exclusive right of fixing the toll on the products thereof; 
and to make all rules and regulation they might deem proper for the prosecu- 
tion and management of the work. The superintendents were authorized to 
purchase such lands on the river as might be necessary for their purposes, the 
State in which such land was situate to retain jurisdiction thereof. If the super- 
intendents and owner of the land sought could not agree on price, the law 
court of the county or district in which it was situate was to appoint five com- 
missioners to value the same, and at that valuation they were to vest in the 
superintendents. If the superintendents failed to agree on any question the 
principal engineer was to act as umpire in the matter, and if a vacancy oc- 
curred in the office of either superintendent was to act as superintendent until 
such vacancy was filled. Each State was to fix the term of office and to pay 
the salary and expenses of its superintendent. 

The expense of improving and rendering navigable the river was to be 
borne equally by the two States, but each was to be at liberty to make such 
appropriation as it might see proper, provided that the smallest appropriation 
by either State was to be one-half of the total amount to be raised. In other 
words if South Carolina appropriated $20,000 and Georgia $30,000, the total 
appropriation was to be $40,000, and Georgia was only to be called on for 
$20,000. 

All tolls collected were to be used first for repairs and current expenses, 
and secondly in making such improvements as the Legislatures of the two 
States might direct. If none were ordered the tolls were to be reduced so as 
only to bring in funds enough to repair, renew, and kept in order the works. 

Payments for work done were to be by draft, signed by both superinten- 
dents on the State treasury; any draft drawn on one State to have a counter- 
part draft for an equal amount drawn on the other. Neither State was to be 
responsible for drafts drawn on the treasury of the other. 

It was further provided that the State in which any canal might be cut, or 
work erected, under the convention, should not cause or permit the same to be 
demolished or impaired without the consent of the other State, but, on the 
contrary, was to enact such laws as might be necessary for its protection and 
maintenance. 

It is unfortunately the case that this convention, like all the other eftbrts 
at co-operation between the States, came to naught. True, the Legislature of 



Transportation. 45 1 



Georgia ratified it on December 20, 1823, and the Legislature of South Caro- 
lina on December 20, 1825, but here another obstacle interposed. The con- 
vention was an agreement or compact between two States, and the Constitu- 
tion of the United States declares that no State shall without the consent of 
Congress enter into any agreement or compact with another State. It was, 
therefore, necessary to obtain the consent of Congress before the convention 
could become legally operative, and this assent was never given. It is stated 
that by reason of a want of concert between the delegations of the two States 
in Congress, no application was ever preferred the general government for its 
assent. Probably the matter had dragged so long that public interest therein 
had died out, or new administrations had come in not sufificiently acquainted 
with the unfinished business of their predecessors, but, whatever the cause, the 
effort failed. 

Not forseeing this untoward result, and apparently in confident anticipation 
of good results to flow from the convention, the Legislature of Georgia in 1826 
appropriated $20,000 for the improvement of that part of the river lying be- 
tween Andersonville and Augusta, the same to be conditional on a like appro- 
priation from South Carolina. By the same act the sum of $20,000 was ap- 
propriated " for the purpose of removing obstructions in the Savannah River 
below Augusta, and of improving and deepening the channel of that river so 
as to render it at all times navigable for steamboats." This appropriation was 
unconditional, but the commissioners for that part of the river were directed 
to proceed with or without the co-operation of South Carolina as they might 
deem best. This same year the governor was requested to co-operate with 
the executive of South Carolina in all matters tending to the successful opera- 
tion of the convention between the States relative to the improvement of the 
Savannah. 

At this point we may pause in this historical sketch and trace the results 
of the appropriations which had been made. It will be remembered that un- 
der the various acts above cited, appropriations had been made as follows for 
the improvement of the river : Below Augusta, $20,000 ; from Augusta to 
Petersburg, $15,000; from Petersburg to Andersonville, $8,000; and from 
Andersonville to the mouth of Panther Creek on the Tugalo, $7,000 ; a total of 
$50,000. 

Up to 1829 the commissioners for that part of the river below Augusta 
had expended $9,860.80, and had on hand $10,139.20 in money, and one pile 
driving machine, one Augusta boat, one Petersburg boat, and some $200 worth 
of cordage, lumber, tools, etc. The Legislature expresses its " unqualified ap- 
probation of the conduct of the commissioners, as evidenced in their report, 
and the spirit of enterprise, tempered with discretion, perseverance, and economy 
which it exhibits." They were directed to use the unexpended balance in 
their hands in their discretion, and with $4,630.20 completed their task. 



452 History of Augusta. 



In 1822 the commissioners for the Augusta and Petersburg division re- 
ported that they had successfully completed the work assigned them at a cost 
of $10,443.54, and turned over the balance of their appropriation, to wit, the 
sum of $4,556.46 into the State treasury. 

In 1824 the commissioners for that part of the river from Petersburg to 
Andersonville reported that with their appropriation of $8,000 they had put 
their section in such order that boats carrying eighty bales of cotton could 
pass. The weight of the bale then being about half that of the average bale of 
the present day, it follows that boats of at least nine tons burden were then able 
to navigate that part of the Savannah. 

As to the last division, or that from Andersonville to the mouth of Panther 
Creek on the Tugalo, it appears that up to 1823 the commissioners had ex- 
pended $4,575.47 out of their appropriation of $7,000. Out of this balance of 
$2,424.53, they had expended the further sum of $1,415,25, leaving a balance 
of $1,009.28 then on hand. This seems to have been sufficient to complete the 
work which the Legislature ordered done as soon as practicable. 

From 181 5 to 1826 the total appropriations made by Georgia for the im- 
provement of the river aggregated $50,000, and the expenditure of $39,- 
934.54 sufficed to put the entire stream in satisfactory order, leaving a surplus 
of $10,065.46. This much having been accomplished and a convention hav- 
ing been concluded with South Carolina whereby, after many years of effort 
the co-operation of that State seemed assured, it looked as if the work of im- 
provement was on a solid and durable basis, but a new obstacle to united effort 
arose. 

In a special message to the Legislature of 1828 Governor Forsyth informed 
that body that after South Carolina had ratified the River Convention her del- 
egation in Congress in 1826 proposed to apply to that body for its assent to 
the compact but that no application was made because the Georgia delegation 
would not unite with them. At the session of 1827 the Georgia delegation 
were instructed to concur in such application, but at that time the South Car- 
olina delegation declined to unite with them on the ground that they had no 
instruction so to do. In consequence of this game of cross purposes no appli- 
cation had been made for congressional consent. Despite this failure Gover- 
nor Forsyth says he would have renewed his instructions to the Georgia del- 
elegation were it not that he was in receipt of information from the governor 
of South Carolina which satisfied him that that State did not desire the con- 
vention to become operative. From the information before him it would be 
seen that "a project is in the course of execution to divert by a railroad from 
Hamburg to Charleston the whole trade of this State above Augusta, from 
Savannah to Charleston. The right of South Carolina to improve all its re- 
sources, and draw from a neighboring State a portion of its trade is not denied, 
nor is the exercise of that right a cause of just complaint ; but in this scheme 



Transportation. 453 



South Carolina is to have the benefit of the engineer of the United States; the 
skill and science under the command of the Union, and the money of the gen- 
eral government — our money — is to be used for the purpose of aiding in the ex- 
ecution of a scheme which if successful, will seriously injure, if not destroy our 
most flourishing seaport." In view of this project he says : " It cannot now be 
desired by South Carolina to have the convention ratified, and that, if it was, it 
would be unwise on our part to fetter ourselves by its obligations, as South 
Carolina's design will prevent any expenditure of money on the most import- 
ant part of the Savannah River, that below Augusta." 

The message was referred to the committee on the state of the Republic, 
which reported that the failure to obtain congressional sanction for the conven- 
tion did not cause them any regret. The report then continues : 

"Recent indications exhibited in South Carolina evidence very clearly not 
only the unwillingness but the inability of that State to aid in the consumma- 
tion of the proposed undertaking. The governor of South Carolina in a letter 
addressed to the executive of this State frankly admits 'that the incorporation 
of a company to erect a railroad from Hamburg to the city of Charleston, 
which it seems will be carried into effect, will render the State averse to ex- 
pending any money on the river below Augusta.' In another part of the same 
letter he says, 'it is not likely that in any short time this State will make any 
appropriation for clearing the river above Augusta; in favor of this course we 
have one unanswerable argument, the low state of the treasury.' This confes- 
sion impresses your committee with the belief that should the complete ratifi- 
cation of the convention be obtained, it would, under existing circum-stances, 
be inoperative or of no avail. Georgia, we apprehend, would be unwilling to 
fetter herself by a positive pledge, when there was a strong probability, if not 
absolute certainty, that all the disbursements necessary to effectuate the pro- 
posed object were to emanate exclusively from her own treasury. Should, 
however, the resources of the other contracting party ever enable her to co- 
operate with us in the prosecution of the work, a collision of opinion, engen- 
dered by a diversity of interests, would unquestionably prevail in regard to the 
portion of the river upon which the joint fund should be expended. It would 
be a paramount consideration with Georgia to render perfect the navigation of 
the river below Augusta, while South Carolina, with all the facilities afforded 
by her railroad, could feel no interest whatever in its improvement. She would, 
of course, bestow all her care and attention upon the river above Augusta, 
which to us would be an object of secondary importance. These considerations 
impel your committee to recommend for adoption the following resolution : 

''Resolved, That, under present circumstances, it is impolitic on the part of 
Georgia to attempt to procure a full and entire ratification of the convention 
with South Carolina relative to the navigation of the Savannah and Tugalo 
Rivers." 



454 History of Augusta. 



Report and resolution were adopted, and this was the end of co-operation 
between South Carohna and Georgia for the improvement of the navigation of 
the Savannah River. 

In 1829 the Legislature appointed commissioners for the counties of Rich- 
mond, Columbia, Lincoln and Elbert, one for each, and made it their duty to 
survey, determine, and lay off the main channel of the Savannah, beginning at 
the first shoal above Augusta, and thence upward to the mouth of Lightwood 
Log Creek, in KIbert coimty. They were also to see that the channel was kept 
clear, and that no dam, trap, or other obstacle stretched over more than one- 
third of the stream. The commissioner from Richmond county was Benjamin 
H. Warren. From some subsequent legislation it appears that a survey was 
made of the river under this act, and beacons and other marks designating the 
channel established, but this is- the last statute of any note looking to the im- 
provement of the navigation of the Savannah. Following the example of South 
Carolina, Georgia looked to the new instrumentality of railroads for transpor- 
tation, and ceased even the fitful efforts she had up to that time made for the 
improvement of her great water way. A number of subsequent statutes rel- 
ative to the Savannah followed that of 1829, but their main object was to pro- 
tect fish and fisheries. 

We may here give some account of the legislation of South Carolina for 
the improvement of the river. In 1791 it was portioned out into three divis- 
ions, from Augusta to Long Cane Cretk, from Long Cane Creek to the old 
boundary line, and from thence to Fort Prince George on the Kiowee, and 
commissioners appointed for each division, who were authorized to require all 
male inhabitants between the ages of sixteen and fifty residing in their re- 
spective divisions within six miles of the river, to work thereon ten days in each 
year. The commissioners were also authorized to receive all donations or sub- 
scriptions made for the improvement of the river. 

In 1795 seven commissioners were appointed to conduct a lottery for the 
purpose of raising ;^i,200 to be devoted to the removal of obstructions in the 
Savannah between Campbelton and Augusta; and in 1805 a board of fourteen 
commissioners was appointed to co-operate with any commissioners that might 
be appointed by Georgia to clear out the river from Campbelton to the junc- 
tion of the Tugalo and Kiowee, and the sum of $10,000 appropriated for such 
purpose, conditioned on Georgia appropriating a like sum. No concurrent ac- 
tion having been had by Georgia th's proposition came to nothing. The ap- 
propriations made by the general government up to a half century since were 
as follows: In 1826, $50,000; in 1829, $24,490; in 1832. $25,000; in 1834, 
$30,000; in 1835, $20,000; and in 1838, $15,000; total, $164,490. The great 
bulk of this, however, if not in fact all, was devoted to the improvement of nav- 
igation at the mouth of the river, but one appropriation, that of 1838, being 
generally for the improvement of navigation without specifiying any particular 



Transportation. 45$ 



locality. Before the war the South was opposed to internal improvements by 
the general government, the idea being that it was the function of the States 
to carry on such operations and that it was not within the constitutional prov- 
ince of Congress to use the common fund for the benefit of any special locality. 
In a letter written by Hon. George T. Barnes, member of Congress for the Au- 
gusta district, to the Savannah Valley Convention, to be hereafter mentioned, 
the political views for many years entertained on this subject are very clearly 
expressed, and we here quote what he says : 

"A river of such magnitude as the Savannah, forming the boundary line 
between two States, with such a capacity as a highway, not only for local com- 
merce, but commerce between the States and even for foreign commerce be- 
tween other countries and our own, is legitimately within the purview of that 
provision of the constitution under which appropriations for the improvement 
of rivers and, harbors have been made. Both Mr. Calhoun and Mr. Webster 
derived the right to make such appropropriations from the power of Congress 
'to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and 
with the Indian tribes.' 

"Mr. Calhoun would have restricted the exercise of that power to such riv- 
ers, the Mississsppi for example, as formed tlie boundary line between several 
States. But Mr. Webster held that the question in such cases is not whether 
the expenditure be local, but whether the purpose be general, a national pur- 
pose and object. A river, said he, flowing between two States — and two States 
only — may be highly important to the commerce of the whole Union. The 
river and harbor bills passed by Congress for many years have followed the 
construction of Mr. Webster, and even those which have been subjected to exec- 
utive criticism or veto have been on the ground that appropriations made were 
for other purposes than those fairly contemplated by that construction. This 
appears from President Grant's message of 1876, approving the bill of that 
year, and President Arthur's veto on the bill of 1882. President Cleveland 
signed the bill of 1886, but failed to sign the bill of 1887. But Mr. Webster's 
construction of that clause of the constitution may be now regarded as settled. 
The improvement of the Savannah River is not only clearly within the pur- 
poses of the constitution so construed, but would come within the purposes of 
a much narrower and more restricted construction." 

After the war the old anti-internal improvement theory was abandoned, 
but the overshadowing importance of the railroad interests caused but little at- 
tention to be paid to river navigation. The railroads having a practical mo- 
nopoly of transportation imposed such rates as were felt to repress develop- 
ment, and attention was once more directed to the waterways. 

On December 20, 1887, the Augusta Chronicle initiated a movement look- 
ing toward a general and systematic improvement of the river in a very able 
editorial, a portion of which we here subjoin: " Liberal appropriations should 



456 . History of Augusta, 



be secured from Congress for the river. The people of the Savannah Valley- 
are interested in the removal of obstructions from the stream. 

"The Augusta Exchange, it seems to us, would do well to call a convention 
in this city at an early day for the purpose of taking this matter in hand. All 
the counties in Georgia and South Carolina on either side of the river which 
have any interest in it, should be invited to send delegates to the convention. 
As the result of this convention we would secure the active co-operation of the 
senators and congressmen from two States, who in response to the petitions of 
their constituents, would work actively for an appropriation large enough to 
do all the work needed. 

" We do not ask for an appropriation to pump water into a creek, but for 
the improvement of one of the largest and most important rivers of the United 
States. The small sums heretofore doled out by Congress have been practi- 
cally of no avail. What we need, and what we should have and can nave by 
proper concert of action, is an appropriation to do the work properly and 
promptly. 

"A convention of the people of the Savannah Valley for the purpose stated 
is the one thing needful. Let the Augusta Exchange take the matter in hand 
and call a convention at an early day, say in January. The importance of the 
river as the great natural highway to the sea for the products of a large and 
rich area of two States will be fully ventilated and demonstrated. 

"Let committees be appointed by this convention to go to Washington to 
lay this matter before Congress. They will enlist the active influence of the 
representatives from both States. In this way the claims and advantages of a 
navigable river, choked with sand-bars, stumps and debris, on account of neg- 
lect and non-use for twenty-five years, will be properly presented, and, we be- 
lieve, appreciated by Congress." 

In accordance with this suggestion, a meeting was held at the Exchange 
on December 28, 1887. Mr. James Tobin, president of the Exchange, was 
called to the chair, and stated that the object of the meeting was to call a con- 
vention of the people on both sides the Savannah for the purpose of concert- 
ing measures for the improvement of that river. 

Hon. Patrick Walsh, editor of the Chronicle, being called on, said : " The 
object of the meeting, as has been stated by the chair, is to call a convention to 
be held in this city of the people of the Savannah Valley, to urge upon Con- 
gress the necessity of the improvement of the Savannah River. 

" We realize that we have in Congress a gentleman fully able to take charge 
of our interests and to present our claims for an appropriation, but they can be 
advanced by enlisting the support of a number of congressmen. The active 
CO operation of the six congressmen on each side of the river, with the sena- 
tors of the two States, and possibly the co-operation of the entire delegation 
from Georgia and South Carolina, will be certain to secure the necessary ap- 
propriation for the river. 



Transportation. 457 



" Let the exchange call this convention, and one of the good results will be 
the improvement of the Savannah River. Major Barnes has been the first 
member of Congress in many years who has taken an active interest in the af- 
fairs of the district, and looked particularly after the improvement of the river. 
By means of this convention his hands will be greatly strengthened, and our 
just claims will be recognized and our just demands will be granted by Con- 
gress." 

Hon. George T. Barnes, member of Congress for the Augusta district, be- 
ing called on, said he was in full sympathy with the movement, and thought 
the convention of representatives from both sides of the river was calculated 
to do a great deal of good, but in order to obtain anything in the way of an 
appropriation they would have to be guilty of a little importuning. 

He exhibited a pamphlet containing the proceedings of a convention (held 
in Columbus) of delegates from along the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers. 
Delegates from Georgia, Florida and Alabama were present. The attention 
of the Georgia Legislature was called to this, and resolutions memorializing 
Congress were adopted. 

Major Barnes urged the meeting not to stop at showing the local benefit to 
be derived from improving the Savannah, but to go further and show the na- 
tional importance of the Savannah River. He alluded in a flattering manner 
to the valuable statistics and information as to our river from the pen of Major 
Harry Hammond, and referred to the greatness of our river. He showed how 
little it would take to put the river in a first-class navigable condition, and said 
that even now it was navigable a greater distance than the Hudson, and if 
properly improved, would make Augusta the great distributing point of the 
East and West. 

He said that the engineers must be shown by the home committee what 
was wanted. The river has a great advantage for heavy freights. This point, 
if the river was improved, would become the great distributing point for East- 
ern, Western, West India and South American freights. The God of nature 
had placed at our disposal — right at our feet — a great river; that nothing is the 
matter with it except that right at the bar it has filled up with debris that 
comes from the Piedmont escarpment. Eighteen miles from Augusta there 
was no place where the water was not five feet deep, the only trouble being 
the snags. 

Mr. W. C. Sibley spoke of what the Savannah was when he was a boy, and 
even later when its banks were lined with freight for the boats. He spoke 
earnestly of the great benefits of river navigation and urged strongly the pro- 
posed convention, and introduced the following resolution, which was unani- 
mously adopted : 

^'Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that a convention of the citi- 
zens of the counties bordering on the valley of the Savannah River be held in 
58 



458 tiistoRY OF Augusta. 



this city on Wednesday, the 25th of January, 1888, for the purpose of placing 
before Congress the importance of improving the navigation of the said river." 

Hon. John S. Davidson, president of the State Senate, spoke strongly in 
favor of the proposed convention and the great benefits to be derived from the 
improvement of the river. 

Mr. William Dunbar movetl the appointment of a committee of five, with 
President James Tobin as chairman, to arrange for the convention, and to invite 
delegates from the counties of the Savannah Valley. Unanimously adopted. 
Under the resolution of Mr. Dunbar, President Tobin appointed the following 
eommittee : James Tobin, William Dunbar, W. C. Sibley, Patrick Walsh, Z. W. 
Carwile, and J. J. Dicks. 

The call for the convention met a very general and enthusiastic response, 
and at the appointed time the meeting was called to order by Hon. Patrick 
Walsh, and Mr. E. B. Murray, of Anderson, S. C, elected temporary chairman, 
who, on taking the chair, said: " The object for which this body meets to-day 
is one which cannot fail to attract not only the attention of the counties which 
lie along the banks of the Savannah River but the whole southern country. 
Our people in this section of the union have not received the attention from 
the national government which the importance of the interests involved here 
merit. There is scarcely a stream throughout the great North and West that 
has not been improved to its utmost capacity, while throughout the southland 
are neglected streams which the expenditure of a few thousands of dollars 
would make an inestimable blessing to the people of our country. Among 
these there is perhaps none more conspicuous by the neglect of its great ad- 
vantages than the Savannnh River, a stream which has advantages for com- 
merce which would supply an area of country stretching hundreds of miles be- 
yond the banks of the stream. It seems to me it should have received the at- 
tention of our government long before this, but there is an old adage, " the 
gods help those who help themselves," and, inasmuch as we have done noth- 
ing towards calling attention of congressmen to the necessity and importance 
of the stream, perhaps we, ourselves, are as much to blame as anyone else." 

After an address of welcome by Hon. John S. Davidson, of Augusta, re- 
sponded to by Hon. W. C. Benet, of Abbeville, S. C, the roll of delegates was 
called, and 123 were found present, 41 from South Carolina and 82 from Geor- 
gia, Edgefield, Hampton, Aiken, Barnwell, Anderson, Abbeville, and Laurens 
counties being represented from the^ former, and Columbia, Burke, Wilkes, 
Lincoln, Chatham and Richmond counties from the latter State. A per- 
manent organization was then effected with Mr. John H. Estill, of Savannah, 
as chairman, and Mr. M. V. Calvin, of Augusta, as secretary. A commit- 
tee of one from each State at large, one from each county represented, 
two from Augusta, and two from Savannah was then appointed to memo- 
rialize Congress, as follows : From the State of Georgia-at- large, F. Edge- 



Transportation. 459 



worth Eve, of Columbia county; from the State of South CaroHna-at- 
large, James Aldrich, of Aiken county ; city of Augusta, John S. David- 
son and James Tobin; city of Savannah, D. I. Mclntyre and Bierne Gor- 
don ; Georgia counties : Burke, J. M. Rodgers ; Chatham, Alexander H. 
McDonald; Columbia, M. I. Branch ; Lincoln, T. H. Remsen; Richmond, Pat- 
rick Walsh ; Wilkes, T. C. Hogue ; South Carolina counties: Abbeville, W. C. 
Benet ; Aiken, D. S. Henderson ; Anderson, E. B. Murray ; Barnwell, L. W. 
Youmans ; Edgefield, J. T. Bacon ; Hampton, M. B. McSweeney ; Laurens, J. 
J. Pluss. This committee was also ordered to act as a committee on business, 
and reported: "That a permanent organization be effected by this convention, 
to be known as the " Savannah River Association," the officers of which shall 
be a president, secretary and treasurer, with vice-presidents from each county 
represented in the convention, or that may be represented in subsequent con- 
ventions, and an executive committee of nine, to be appointed by the president. 
The president and secretary and treasurer to be the members of the executive 
committee. The main object of the permanent organization shall be the im- 
provement of the Savannah River. It is to continue in existence until the 
work for which this convention has been called shall have been accomplished. 
The duty of the executive committee shall be to collect information and sta- 
tistics in reference to the water-power, agricultural products, mineral resources, 
manufactures and population of the Savannah Valley, and to present the same 
in the shape of a memorial to Congress asking for such speedy consideration 
and substantial aid from the general government as will accomplish the long 
delayed but needed improvement of the navigation of the Savannah River. 
The executive committee can present such an array of vital statistics concern- 
ing the Savannah Valley country as to leave no doubts as to the justice of our 
petition for a large appropriation for the improvement of a river of inter-State 
importance. 

"This convention represents a territory of 1 1,500 square miles, a population 
of 450,000, an annual agricultural product of $20,000,000 and an aggregate 
capital, in town, city and county property of over $100,000,000. According 
to Major Harry Hammond, in his admirable paper on the Savannah River, the 
official reports on file in the chief engineer's department at Washington, show 
that the navigable rivers on the Atlantic Slope, including tide-water, embrace 
in round numbers 2,500 miles, of which the Savannah River represents one- 
sixth. Exclusive of tide-water, there are only 800 miles of river navigation, 
of which the Savannah River represents one- third, or 270 miles. The gov- 
ernment has expended over $10,500,000 to improve river navigation in other 
States, while it has appropriated only the meager sum of $90,000 for the Sa- 
vannah River." 

The report was adopted, and a permanent organization of the Savannah 
River Association was effected with the following officers : President, Hon. 



460 History of Augusta. 



Patrick Walsh; secretary and treasurer, Hon. M. V. Calvin. Vice-presidents, 
G. T. Tolley, Anderson; M. L. Bonham, jr.. Abbeville; J. J. Pluss, Laurens; 
W. J. Ready, Edgefield ; James Aldrich, Aiken ; L. A. Ashley, Barnwell ; M. 
B. McSweeney, Hampton ; D. C. Wilson, Beaufort; J. H. Estill, Chatham; H. 
Gregg Wright, Effingham ; J. T. Wade, Screven ; James Tobin, Richmond ; 
J. T. Smith, Columbia ; T. H. Renisen, Lincoln ; T. B. Breen, Wilkes ; T. W. 
Swift, Elbert; John B. Benson, Hart; A. R. Yow, Franklin. Executive com- 
mittee, James Tobin, Z. W. Carwile,W. C. Benet, L. W. Youmans, D. S. Hen- 
derson, W. W. Gordon and E. B. Murray, and the president and secretary ex 
officio. 

In taking the chair. President Walsh said, among other things : "Whatever 
differences may have existed in the past between the two great parties which 
are striving for the control of this government in reference to internal improve- 
ments, both parties have decided that it is a wise policy to devote the money 
of the government to the work of internal improvements, and especially to im- 
proving the water-ways of the country. And the only reason this great work 
has been so long neglected, is because we have never before had a convention 
to urge our just claims. Colonel Davidson yesterday presented some wonder- 
ful figures, and I believe I can say I never before heard dry figures so enter- 
tainingly and eloquently presented. He told you that the counties interested 
in this work represent a total production from their farm lands of 6,860,000 
bushels of corn, wheat and oats, and 226,000 bales of cotton, and that the peo- 
ple represent a wealth of a hundred millions of dollars. From the elaborate 
and valuable paper of Major Hammond we learn that the Savannah River is 
eighth in length in North America ; that it has more miles of navigable water 
than any stream on the Atlantic Slope from Florida to Canada; of the total 
navigable length of all the streams on the Atlantic Slope it represents one- 
si.xth, and subtracting tide-water navigation it represents one third. We find 
further this unjust discrimination — I say it is unjust, because our great national 
interests — that is our commerce — have been neglected by our government; we 
find that ten millions and a half have been expended on these streams by the 
government, while the Savannah River, representing one-third of the navigable 
water embraced in the whole, has received but the insignificant sum of ninety- 
four thousand dollars. As Mr. Benet has said, if this noble river ran through 
a Northern State it would have been made navigable to its utmost capacity; 
it would not only be made navigable, but the property of the people living 
along its course would be protected from inundation. When we go to Con- 
gress with the backing and support of this worthy and commanding constitu- 
ency we go not only knowing and asking our rights, but demanding them. 
We represent one hundred millions of dollars, as compiled from the census of 
1880; but I have a yet more remarkable statement to make than any that has 
yet been made on this floor, and that is that we have represented in this con- 



Transportation. 461 



vention in commerce, trade, manufactures, etc., two hundred millions of dol- 
lars annually. I make this statement advisedly ; I think I can prove it. Sa- 
vannah, which enterprising and prosperous city is so ably represented here, 
does a business representing one hundred millions of dollars ; Augusta last year 
did a business of fifty five millions of dollars. I am certainly within bounds 
when I claim that the rest of the country embraced in the Savannah Valley 
will complete the magnificent sum of two hundred millions. The reason we 
have not received just recognition at the hands of Congress is because we have 
not demanded it as we should." 

The memorial to Congress, prepared and presented by the convention, 
is as follows : 

" Memorial to the Congress of the United States. 

Augusta, Ga., February i, 1888. 
" To the Honorable the Meynbers of the House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. : 

" Gentlemen. — Your memorialists, representing the Savannah Valley As- 
sociation, which was organized for the furtherance of the improvement of the 
Savannah River, respectfully direct attention to the fact that, while the Sa- 
vannah Valley Convention, held in this city on the 25th and 26th ult, was 
composed of delegates from counties in Georgia and South Carolina immedi- 
ately contiguous to the river, the subject of this petition is not a local matter, 
but, in the higher acceptation of the term, a question of national importance. 
"The respectful and earnest petition of the people in the Savannah Valley 
is that Congress will at once appropriate for the improvement of the Savannah 
a sum sufficient to make the river navigable to steamboats the year round. 
A glance at the maps will reveal a large area of country, distant from the pres- 
ent head of navigation one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles, that will be 
directly benefited by the improvement that will result from a reasonable ap- 
propriation. 

" The character of the people who ask for this appropriation, and the possi- 
bilities of the belt of country which awaits that which will so greatly benefit it 
— low rates of freight — can be judgr.d by the exhibit made by thirty-five coun- 
ties in Georgia and twelve counties in South Carolina. Facts of a later date 
might be given, but we have chosen those developed by the census of 1880 
and, for convenience, we will use round numbers. 

Thirty-five Counties in Georgia. 

5,800,000 bushels of corn valued at % 2,900,000 

1,500,000 bushels of oats valued at ... 600,000 

800,000 bushels of wheat valued at 800,000 , 

Orchard products 160,000 

250,000 bales cotton 12,500,000 

Farm values, including buildings, etc 32,000,000 

Farming implements 1,700,000 

Value of live stock on farms 6,900,000 



462 History of Augusta. 



Twelve Counties in South Carolina. 

5,200,000 bushels of corn valued at $ 2,600,000 

1 ,600,000 bushels of oats valued at 640,000 

700,000 bushels of wheat valued at 700,000 

Value orchard products 50,000 

250,000 bales cotton 1 2,500,000 

Farm values includin<^ l)uildings, etc 32,000,000 

Farming implements i , 500,000 

Live stock on farms 5,250,000 

A total of $1 16,300,000 

Add 30 per cent 34,890,000 

And you have a more correct estimate f 1 51,190,000 

"We come to you with an interest representing $150,000,000, in the rural 
districts alone. 

" In connection with this wealth of 20,000 square miles, consider that we 
have a population of quite one million thrifty souls ; that the two cities, which 
are respectively the termini of navigation on the Savannah, transacted business 
in 1887 represented by $155,000,000; that this city has seven million dollars 
invested in manufacturing enterprises, and that her cotton factories consumed 
fully twenty- five per cent, of all the cotton manufactured in the South during 
1887 ; that the cotton receipts at this point this year will be 200,000 bales, of 
which the factories in and near this city will consume fifty per cent. — consider 
all these facts and 3/ou will have' a clear conception of the urgency of our ap- 
peal, and you will readily grant that the government ought not to hesitate in 
extending us a liberal hand in the advancement of a work which will health- 
fully affect a territory so rich in possibilities and so much in need of the com- 
plete utilization of one of the finest rivers on this continent. 

" We cite an additional fact, namely, that exclusive of tidewater, the 
Savannah River constitutes one- third of the river navigation of the Atlantic 
States. 

" Of the $10,500,000 expended by the government in river improvement, 
the Savannah has received up to date only $90,000. 

"The Savannah River, above the city of Augusta, is capable of supplying 
400,000 horse-power, equal in extent to the entire water-power of New Eng- 
land. 

" The proceedings of the Savannah Valley Convention, hereto attached, 
show the deep interest which our people feel in the early improvement of the 
navigation of the Savaimah River. The proceedings will interest you, and the 
reports which were submitted to the Convention cannot fail to convince you 
that our petition is reasonable and ought to be granted immediately. 

" And your petitioners will ever pray, etc." 



Transportation. 463 



From the extremely interesting and valuable paper of Major Harry Ham- 
mond, referred to in these proceedings we have heretofore liberally quoted, but 
may here make a further extract. Major Hammond says: "We are informed 
by Maury's maps that the Savannah is the eighth river in length in North 
America, not excepting the Yukon, while the Hudson is ninth ; what concerns 
us now is not the length, but the navigable length, and this means not what 
might be done in the way of navigation, but what has been accomplished, to 
what distance has freight as a commercial venture been habitually transported 
up the river ? Mills's statistics of South Carolina, 1 826, says, " boats of ten ton 
ascend the Tugalo to Pulaski, at the mouth of Brasstown and Panther Creeks." 
Mr. Carson confirming this tells us that the mouth of Panther Creek is 154 
miles by water from Augusta. In the annual report of the chief engineer of 
the United States for 1885 the distance from Augusta to Savannah is stated to 
be 273 miles ; in all 427 miles that is navigated. No river on the Atlantic slope, 
from Florida to Canada, has this extent; the Santee, with 184 miles, and the 
Hudson with 165 miles, comes nearest to it. If the total navigable length of 
all the rivers of this slope be added together, including the Savannah, it will be 
be 2,516 miles of navigable waters. Of this total the Savannah River fur- 
nishes one- sixth. If we subtract tidewater navigation there will be found a 
total of 790 miles of navigable stream for all the rivers of the Atlantic slope, 
and if eighteen miles of tidewater above Savannah be deducted, the river from 
that point to Augusta, the head of steamboat navigation, will furnish very 
nearly thirteen of all the navigable streams above tide water. On the improve- 
ment of all these rivers the government had expended to the 30th of June, 
1885, the sum of $10,558,289, or about $4,196 per mile. There has been ex- 
pended on the Savannah $94,000, or $220 per mile." 

Shortly after the adjournment of the Savannah Valley convention, the 
Chronicle sent one of its reporters, Mr. E. B. Hook, on a steamer trip down 
the river in order to ascertain the present condition of the stream, and from his 
extremely well written account, we make some extracts. " After leaving Au- 
gusta the river passes for some ten or twelve miles bet^veen fertile plantations." 
Then, says Mr. Hook, "Going into the pilot-house we look out on the river, 
and the scene has changed. The fields on either bank have given way to 
dense woods of cypress, ash, gum, sycamore, maple and oak which extend to 
the water's edge, and every tree is festooned with long wreaths of gray moss. 
The river wends its silent way between, and the magnificent solitude is broken 
only by the throbbing of our engines or the splash of our water wheel. The 
sky has cleared overhead, and its blue canopy is reflected in the river below. 
The sun shines out brightly and throws a golden sheen across the water. As 
we turn a bend in the river a flock of wild ducks are startled at our approach, 
and, with discordant quacks, go scurrying over the face of the water in front 
of us. When they find themselves closely pursued by the speeding boat they 



464 History of Augusta. 



circle up high in the air, and soon disappear in the distance. Occasionally a 
wild turkey is frightened from an oak where he was feeding on the young buds, 
and with outstretched neck and awkward flight scuds off into the deeper forest. 
Perhaps several miles will be traversed without the sight of a living thing, when 
the stillness will be broken by a huge blue crane, six or seven feet from beak 
to toe and from tips of wings, flapping from the marsh on our left and with 
heavy flight crossing the river in advance of us, his long legs trailing behind 
him as though he were riding a stick horse. Now and then a squirrel, drink- 
ing at the river's edge, is startled by our approach and goes scampering up a 
neighboring tree to disappear in its branches. 

" But, while we have been contemplating the beautiful scene, our boat has 
been covering the miles and we find ourselves among the 'Seven Points.' 
Technically speaking, a ' point' in a river is a place where it takes a sudden 
turn, sometimes at right angles, sometimes almost doubling straight back upon 
itself, so that your boat has to turn almost completely and travel in nearly an 
opposite direction. The inside bank, which the stream rushes around, and 
around which your boat must turn, is a 'point' I give this much river lore 
to you as a pointer. ' Seven Points' is a collection of these sharp turns which 
follow close upon each other, and you have hardly rounded one safely before 
you are upon another. An idea of the light in which these points are re- 
garded by the steamboatmen may be gained from the nomenclature of the 
river, and I give you a few of the names that you may judge. Taking them 
at random we have Wild Cat, Saucy Boy, Cat Finger, Ring Jaw, Whirligig, 
Devil's Elbow and Little Hell. Experiences that could have produced such a 
nomenclature will give you some idea of the tight times that a steamboat cap- 
tain and pilot have. Around some of these points the river dashes in a nar- 
row channel with a swift current, and the utmost skill must be used in steering 
and heading and backing to prevent being swept pell mell against the banks or 
into the trees that line them. Some of the worst of these points, though, could 
be remedied at little expense and by very simple means. 

" In cases where the river doubles back on itself, flowing at an acute angle 
around a narrow bank that is covered with trees, and juts out a hundred yards, 
all that would be necessary would be to cut a canal five or six feet deep straight 
across for a hundred feet, and let the river run through it instead of around it, 
and in a little while it would eat away the point, or the first freshet would blow 
it completely out. If the government can once be interested in this river it 
can be made a safe and easy highway for much larger boats. 

" Forty miles from Savannah, on a red bluff that overlooks the river, we 
came in sight of a rock church about a hundred yards from the river bank in a 
grove of trees. This is called Ebenezer Church, and is given out by the river 
men to be the oldest church in the United States. As Jamestown, Va., had 
been settled a century and a quarter before this section was, they could hardly 



Transportation. 465 



establish this claim. However, it is no new fledgeling. This church, which 
now remains as the solitary relic of a once flourishing town, is the "Jerusalem" 
church of 1744. Not far from it, I am informed, is an ancient cemetery; and 
as this stately old house of God, with its steeple pointing to heaven, faded away 
in the distance, I thought it seemed to stand as a divinely preserved finger- 
board for the spirits of those brave builders of long ago, to direct their flight 
when the great awakening shall come at the sounding of the last trump on the 
eternal morning. 

" From this point on the river increased in beauty, the banks being lined 
with stately live oaks, decked with long streamers of gray moss. Twenty-five 
miles from Savannah we passed Purysburg, on the Carolina side. This old 
town is beginning to put on new life and to build up again its waste places. 
Soon after this we began to meet tide water. Further down we entered the 
land of rice, the fields stretching out on either side of the river, with their 
ditches intersecting them at right angles every few hundred yards. Soon we 
had left South Carolina off to our left beyond the backwater arm of the river, 
which empties into the stream again below the city of Savannah, and were 
traveling between Heard's Island and the main land. Then came Rabbit Is- 
land and the city of Savannah below us on the right. As we neared our wharf 
the city clock marked the hour of 5:30 P. M., showing that our actual running 
time from Augusta to Savannah had been ten minutes less than twenty hours, 
or twelve and a half miles per hour, an unusually fine run." 

In a communication from the pilots and steamboatmen to the convention 
indicating the points on the river needing attention, we find many names equally 
as euphonious as those which attracted Mr. Hook's attention. After leaving 
Augusta the principal points, in order named, are as follows : Kirk's Bar, Sand 
Bar, Blue House, Cooney Gut, Miller's Bar, Rifle Cut, Buggs' Bar, Guinea 
Bar, Haines Cut, Hancock's Landing, Robinson Round, Steele Creek, Seven 
Points, Cunningham Bars, Stony Bluff, White Woman's Point, Ring Jaw Point, 
Brown's, Burton Ferry, King Creek, Mills' Landing, Matthews' Bluff, Cook's 
Field, Brier Creek, Cut Finger Cut, Poor Robin, Upper Cut, Blanket Point, 
Hudson Ferry, Hog's Nose Round, Parachucla, Frying Pan, Hickory Bend, 
Flat Dish, and Beck's Ferry. At Blanket Point the ribs of an old steamboat 
still whiten in the stream. 

With this much as to the history of the efforts which have been made for 
nearly a century past for the improvement of the Savannah, we may resume 
the thread of narration as to the methods of transportation employed. It has 
been seen that for many years boats of some nine to ten tons burden navigated 
the river to and fro as far as 154 miles above Augusta. These were propelled 
by the brawny arms of pole-men, and the vessels employed in the trade on 
that part of the river between Augusta and Savannah differed only in being of 
greater size, though we have found mention of sail-boats being in use in this 
&9 



466 History of Augusta, 



trade. In reference to these boats several regulative acts were passed from 
1806 to 1836. The first of these statutes prohibits any slave or free person of 
color from acting as commander, or "patroon," as the act styles it, of any boat 
engaged in the transportation of goods, wares, merchandise, or produce be- 
tween Augusta and Savannah. In 18 15 the owners or agents of boats en- 
gaged in traffic from Augusta to the headwaters of the Savannah, were re- 
quired to furnish the patroon at time of starting on his voyage witii a certificate 
or bill of lading, showing the destination of the boat, its cargo, and the names 
of patroon and consignee, which bill of lading was to be open to the inspection 
of any white person demanding it. 

In 1 8 16 another act was passed which required boat- owners and patroons 
to prohibit any slave, whether boat-hand or not, from carrying in their boats be- 
tween Augusta and Savannah any corn, cotton, peas, or other produce as their 
property for sale, default being made an indictable offence. In the next year 
the provisions of this act were extended to boats navigating above Augusta, 
and as late as 1836 the prohibition wa; extended to live stock and poultry, 
and the act of 1 8 1 5 relative to bills of lading was extended to all parts of the Sa- 
vannah. But while the boat trade still flourished a half century ago, the steam- 
boat had then become the great instrumentality of commerce below Augusta. 

In considering the history of the steamboat on the Savannah we may well 
begin with some sketch of Mr. William Longstreet, its inventor, and may here 
reproduce what we have said of him on another occasion. " In St. Paul's 
Churchvard, Augusta, Ga., about midway down the walk on the western side 
of the church, is a venerable tombstone, with the following inscription : " Sacred 
to the memory of William Longstreet, who departed this life September i, 
1 8 14, aged 54 years, 10 months and 26 days. ' All the days of the afflicted 
are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.' " 

This stone marks the last resting place of one who may be justly claimed 
as the inventor of the steamboat. Mr. Longstreet was born, as the above de- 
scription indicates, on October 6, 1/59, and seems early in life to have discov- 
ered the secret of steam navigation. In " Watkins's Digest of Georgia Laws," 
page 382 ,we find that, on February i, 1788, the General Assembly passed " an 
act to secure Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet, tor the term of fourteen 
years, the sole and exclusive privilege of using a newly constructed steam en- 
gine, invented by them." The digest does not give the text of this statute, 
but from a letter written by Mr. Longstreet to the governor of the State in 
1790 we learn that the engine referred to must have been for use in a steam- 
boat. This letter is still preserved in the archives of the State, and is as follows: 

Augusta, September 26, 1790. 
Sir: I make no doubt but you have often heard of my steamboat, and as often heard it 
laughed at. But in this 1 have only shared the fate of all other projectors, for it has uniformly 
been the custom of every country to ridicule even the greatest inventions until use has proved 



Transportation. * 467 



their utility. In not reducing my scheme to practice has been a little unfortunate for me I con- 
fess, and perhaps the people in general ; but until very lately I did not think that either artists 
or material could be had in the place sufficient. However, necessity, that grand science ot in- 
vention, has furnished me with an idea of perfecting my plan almost entirely with wooden ma- 
terials, and by such workmen as may be got here, and from a thorough confidence of its suc- 
cess I hav^e presumed to ask your assistance and patronage. 

Should it succeed agreeable to my expectation, I hope I shall discover that source of duty 
which such favors alwavs merit ; and should it not succeed, your reward must lay with other 
unlucky adventures. 

For me to mention to you all the advantages arising from such a machine, would be tedious 
and indeed quite unnecessary, therefore I have taken the liberty to state in this plain and hum- 
ble manner my wish and opinion, which I hope you will excuse, and I shall remain either with 
or without approbation, Your Excellency's most obedient and very humble servant. 

To Governor Telfair. Wm. Longstreet. 

The reader will perceive in this letter how Mr. Longstreet seems to smart 
under the ridicule accorded his invention. He speaks feelingly of having been 
laughed at for his pains, and all his consciousness of having done the w^orld a 
service seems inadequate to console him. Tradition relates that he and his 
steamboat were made the subject of a contemporary comic song, a verse or two 
of which we have heard from a venerable citizen of Augusta : 

" Can you row the boat ashore, 

Billy-boy, Billy-boy ? 
Can you row the boat ashore, ,^ ^ 

Gentle Billy? 
Can vou row the boat ashore, 
Without a paddle or an oar, 

Billy-boy?" 

Despite this ill reception, however, Mr. Longstreet never ceased to experi- 
ment upon his idea until he made it a success some years after. For a time, 
while engaged in perfecting his main invention of the steamboat, he applied 
steam to other uses, and at a very early period in this century we find him 
operating in Augusta at one time a steam cotton gin, and at another a steam 
saw- mill. 

Thus, in the Augusta Herald, of December 23, 1801, we find the follow- 
ing: "On Sunday morning last, about two o'clock, fire broke out in the house 
containing Mr. Longstreet's steam machine. The fire had attained a consider- 
able height before it was discovered, but the exertions of the citizens, who 
turned out with their usual alacrity, prevented its extending to any neighbor- 
ing tenements. The building, however, in which the fire originated, together 
with a considerable quantity of cotton, which it contained, we are sorry to say, 
was entirely consumed, and the whole ginning machinery was destroyed. 
This accident seems to have been peculiarly unfortunate, as the ingenious pro- 
prietor of the works had, we understand, the day before completed a new 
boiler, which had, on trial, been found to equal his utmost expectations, and 



468 History of Augusta. 



enabled him with a single gin, and with a very trifling expense of fuel, to gin 
from 800 to 1,000 weight clean cotton per day." 

In the same paper of June 30, 1802, a correspondent writes : "I have been 
several times to see the operation of the new steam saw-mill, recently con- 
structed by Messrs. Longstreet & Griffin, and, from its simplicity am persuaded 
it may be rendered extensively useful, and be applied with great ease and con- 
veniency to all kinds of heavy machinery. This mill, though in miniature, ap- 
pears to have all the necessary machinery for saw-mills, and strikes about one 
hundred times per minute, without the aid of any wheel whatever, except the 
fly-wheel. So far as my judgment extends, and from the observations I have 
made, I have no doubt that an engine constructed on the plan of this mill may, 
in almost any situation, be rendered highly advantageous, and particularly so 
in those places where there may be plenty of timber, but few watercourses on 
which mills can be erected. As this machine is quite portable, I understand 
the proprietors intend taking it to Savannah and Charleston; and, as it may 
be rendered obviously important to the lower country in this and the adjoin- 
ing State, it is presumable their ingenuity \yill be duly appreciated and patron- 
ized. Mr. Longstreet, who, I presume, is the principal, and to whom I have 
heard the patent belongs, does not hesitate to affirm that he can construct a 
mill on this principle to saw or grind to almost any extent." 

We have seen it stated that in 1806 Mr. Longstreet finally obtained suffi- 
cient means to construct a steamboat according to his ideas, and successfully 
operated it on the Savannah River opposite Augusta, but have not been able to 
verify the information. In 1808, however, it is beyond question that he did 
so, and in the Augusta Herald oi November 10, 1808, we find the following 
editorial mention of the fact: "We are happy to announce that Mr. Long- 
street's experiments with his new invented steamboat have answered his most 
sanguine expectation. The lovers of the arts in this place, and the spectators 
have been extremely gratified by the different essays he has made, and no 
doubt remains on their minds, but his labors will be crowned with success, and 
that it will, were it necessary, add another proof that Americans are endued 
with genius." From the reference here to " the different essays he has made," 
taken in connection with the letter above quoted of 1790, it is quite likely that 
the statement of his having successfully operated a steamboat on the waters of 
the Savannah in 1806 is correct. If so, he is indubitably entitled to the honor 
of being the inventor of the steamboat, Robert Fulton's successful trial trip up 
the Hudson, in the Clermont, dating from August 7, 1807. If Mr. Long- 
street's boat was not on the water till 1808, so that Fulton is entitled to the 
credit of having first operated the invention, the honor of excogitating the idea 
of steam navigation is still with the former, since, as we have seen, he receives 
a patent from the Georgia Legislature in 1788, and in 1790 mentions the 
steamboat by name as an invention of his, then well known, and it was not 



Transportation. 469 



until ^1790 that Robert Fulton left the United States for Europe in order to 
perfect his education. After his return to the United States he became ac- 
quainted with Chancellor Livingston, who had paid great attention to the sub- 
ject of steam as a motor, and in 1798 obtained from the New York Assembly 
the exclusive right to apply it to the propulsion of vessels. From this time 
Fulton began, in conjunction with the chancellor, a series of experiments 
which culminated in the ClcvDiont in 1807. Considering that something over 
nineteen years elapsed from the time of the Georgia statute up to Fulton's 
final experiment, and that Longstreet never relinquished his idea in all that 
period, but constantly kept it before the public, it is not at all improbable but 
that in that prolonged period intelligence of the ingenious Georgian's idea ex- 
tended throughout the then Union. In fact, we know that in 1789 John Ste- 
vens made some experiments towards steam navigation in New York, and that 
in 1790 John Fitch is said to have put a species of steamboat on the Delaware, 
circumstances tending to show Longstreet's idea had been noised abroad. 
This, of course, is but inference ; but, however it may be, one thing in the 
history of steam navigation is perfectly well established, and that is that in 1788 
William Longstreet, of Georgia, had conceived the idea of the steamboat, and 
either before, or about contemporaneously with, the famous trip of the Clermont, 
had, by the mighty agency of steam, made a vessel walk the water like a thing 
of life. 

Mention has several times been made in this work of Judge John Schley, of 
Augusta as a gentleman prominent in all matters of development and progress 
in this vicinage in the early part of the present century. As might have been 
expected Judge Schley took great interest in the steamboat, and at one time 
had in one of his storage yards the machinery of one of Mr. Longstreet's boats. 
Mr. Robert Schley, a son of the judge, very well remembers the incident from 
having while a boy in playing with his companions about the yard, frequently 
seen these relics Not having paid any special attention to the nature of the 
machinery Mr. Schley could not in answer to our inquiries give any special de- 
scription, but remembers that there was a great deal of it, and that it was of 
iron, a circumstance going to show that Mr. Longstreet was not reduced to 
the expedient mentioned in his letter of 1790 to Governor Telfair of construct- 
ing it of wood. Mr. Schley also informs us that he remembers \er}' distinctly 
his father telling him that Mr. Longstreet's idea was to propel his boat by a 
series of poles so arranged that as the shaft revolved the poles would alternately 
strike the bottom of the river and thus push the boat forward. The paddle- 
wheel seems to have been first used on Fulton's Clermont on the Hudson. 

In 18 14 the Legislature of Georgia passed "an act to encourage an im- 
proved mode of transporting merchandize upon the waters of the State of 
Georgia," which recites as the reason of its enactment " that Samuel Howard, 
of the city of Savannah, hath presented his memorial to the General Assembl}-, 



470 History of Augusta. 



in which he proposes to adopt a new and improved mode of transporting mer- 
chandize upon the waters of the State of Georgia, by towing and warping the 
ships, vessels, boats, and rafts, in and upon which the same may be laden, by 
means of other boats or vessels impelled by the aid of steam, and it is right 
that those who bestow their time and money upon enterprises of public utility 
should be secured in the enjoyment of the fruit of their exertions and experi- 
ments." It then proceeded to enact that the exclusive right to use steam in 
the manner above specified should be vested in Samuel Howard and his asso- 
ciates on certain specified terms, to wit: Within three years from the passage 
of the act. Howard, his assigns, or associates were to have at least one such 
machine in operation and within ten years at least one on each river, except 
that as to the river Savannah the grant was not to be operative until the Leg- 
islature of Carolina had made a like grant. If there was a failure to continue 
operations at any one time for the space of a twelvemonth the grant was to 
cease and determine. It was also made lawful for the grantee to remove any 
obstructions in the Savannah, and place them on the banks thereof, and to 
place marks or buoys on any obstructions he did not see fit to remove. All 
goods transported on the Savannah by the grantee's machines were to be 
exempt from tolls imposed by the commissioners of navigation of that river. 
Any person infringing the privilege granted was to forfeit $500 for each 
offense and all his boats and machinery, and any person obstructing the gran- 
tec's machines or removing his beacons was to be fined $100. 

By act of December 21, 18 14, the Legislature of South Carolina concurred 
in the action of Georgia and vested Howard and his associates with exclusive 
right to tow and warp vessels by steam on the Savannah for twenty years. 
From this act we learn that one John L. Sullivan had taken out a patent for 
towing by steam, and that Howard was his assignee. It does not appear that 
Howard began operations under this act of 18 14, but he seems to have en- 
listed quite a number of associates, and in 18 17 the Legislature incorporated 
them as "The President, Directors and Company of the Steamboat Company 
of Georgia," confirmed to them all the privileges originally granted Howard, 
and gave them the exclusive privilege of navigating the rivers and other 
waters of the State with boats or vessels propelled by steam, whether employed 
alone or for the purpose of warping, towing, or otherwise impelling other boats 
or vessels, rafts, floats, or arks. The capital stock was fixed at $200,000 in- 
creasable by a two-thirds vote to $800,000. Within seven years the company 
was to have a steamboat in operation on each and every river under penalty 
of a loss of its exclusive privilege thereon ; a like penalty to be visited on the 
failure for a twelvemonth to operate a boat on any river after once beginning 
so to do, after the seven years. The company was made liable for all losses 
caused by fire or steam, if occasioned by their negligence or that of their ser- 
vants or agents, and were entitled to insure freights. Any infringement was 



Transportation. 47 1 



punishable by a fine of $1,000 and forfeiture of the infringing vessel and her 
machinery. The incorporators were Albert Brux, William Gumming, John 
McKinne, Samuel Hale, Andrew Erwin, Henry Shultz, Benjamin Sims, Shel- 
don C. Dunning, William Scarborough, Jonathan Meigs, John Gurnin, Samuel 
Howard, Robert Isaac, Abraham Twiggs, Augustin Slaughter, Oliver Sturgess, 
William Hart, William Taylor, Gharles Labuzan, Benjamin Burroughs, Will- 
iam Sims, Samuel P. P. Fay, Jared Grose, Elias Reid, Samuel Lark, Charles 
Howard, Basil Lamar, Barna McKinne, Joseph Grant, James Erwin. James G. 
O. Wilkinson, Thomas Talmage, Walter Crenshaw, Augustus Brux, and David 
McKinne, a very large number of whom were citizens of Augusta. In the 
same year in which the Steamboat Company was incorporated the Legisla- 
ture appropriated the sum of $250,000 as a permanent fund for the improve- 
ment of internal navigation in Georgia, and directed the governor to invest 
the same in bank or other profitable stock, the interest from the fund to be ap- 
plied as directed by the Legislature. 

In 18 18 Governor Rabun informed the Legislature that bank stock com- 
manded too great a premium to warrant inve.stment, but that he had pur- 
chased two hundred shares in the stock of the Steamboat Company for $100,- 
000, being par. By the terms of the contract of purchase the company was to 
secure the State by a mortgage on real estate for the $100,000 and eight per 
cent, interest thereon. By the next year the company appears to have begun 
operations on the Savannah River, the joint committee on internal improve- 
ments reporting: "With regard to the Savannah River from Augusta down, 
we have the pleasure of stating that an efficient use of machinery appears to 
have been introduced into their system of operations." 

By 1823 the Steamboat Company was in full operation on the Savannah, 
and possibly on other rivers. At the same time there was a steamboat line 
operating from Hamburg to Charleston. While the distance from Hamburg 
to Charleston was about twice as great as from Augusta to Savannah, the 
freight on the Charleston line was no more than that charged on the other. 
The consequence was that the cotton of Upper South Carolina went 7'ia Ham- 
burg to Charleston, to the detriment of Augusta and Savannah. Between 
Hamburg and Charleston competition in the steamboat business was free, and 
this competition had forced rates down. The monopoly enjoyed by the 
Steamboat Company of Georgia enabled them to fix their own rates between 
Augusta and Savannah. Recognizing the advantage given her by this state 
of affairs South Carolina fostered the commerce of Hamburg in every way. In 
1 82 1 the town was exempted for five years from taxation and at a later per- 
iod it is stated that a bounty of $100,000 was voted to sustain it in its compe- 
tition with Augusta. It was not long before memorials begun to pour in upon 
the General Assembly of Georgia, which appointed a special joint committee 
to consider the grievances complained of by Augusta, Savannah, and Darien. 



472 



History of Augusta. 



This committee made a voluminous report which begins by saying that the 
commerce of those cities lias wofuUy fallen off, that rents have suffered an un- 
precedented diminution, notwithstanding which half the houses are vacant, 
that real estate has diminished in value one-half, and that the income of all 
classes dependent on commerce is constantly decreasing. The causes of this 
decline, the committee then proceeds to consider. One prominent cause it 
finds in the monopoly enjoyed by the Steamboat Company as respects steam 
transportation between Augusta and Savannah. While it is admitted that 
freights have been reduced by the use of steam, as compared with what they 
were before, it is found that they are not as low as they would be if there were 
no monopoly, and for proof of this it is shown that freights by the Charleston 
line where competition was free are, proportionate to distance, but half as much 
as those on the Georgia line. The report says on this subject : " The bounty 
of-Providence has given us a noble river. The ingenuity of man has taught 
us to navigate it by steam, and we have marred these blessings by closing it 
against individual enterprise. The waters of the Savannah, which every prin- 
ciple of sound policy required us to preserve as free as the breezes of the moun- 
tains from whence they flow, are hermetically sealed by legislative enactment 
against the adventurous spirit of our citizens The rights which have been 
granted must be respected. The plighted faith of the State must be preserved. 
But if it shall appear to the Legislature that the existence of these rights is 
injurious to the commercial and agricultural interest of the State, that the in- 
jury which they operate is not confined to the inhabitants of Savannah and 
Augusta, but extends to all who deal in the markets of these cities, that it is 
not limited even to them, but embraces also the inhabitants of Darien, and 
that portion of our citizens who dwell on the waters of which it is the outlet to 
the ocean ; that the aggregate of this loss amounts up to a sum more than suf- 
ficient to extinguish this chartered claim with tlie full and free consent of the 
proprietors ; that the means are within the control of the State, without the ad- 
vance of a dollar from its treasury, then it is respectfully suggested by the 
committee that the duty to do so is imperative, that it is demanded by a due 
regard to the interests of the people of Georgia. The Steamboat Company is 
indebted to the State in the sum of $100,000. It is understood that the stock- 
holders will be willing on the release of this debt to relinquish all claim under 
their charter. Can it be doubted that sound policy requires the adoption of 
the measure?" The committee therefore offered the following among other 
resolutions looking to the improvement of the commercial status : "That it 
would greatly conduce to the interest of the State at large, and would essen- 
tially promote its commerce, if the rivers of the State were open to the indi- 
vidual enterprise of its citizens, to accomplish which it is necessary to obtain 
the voluntary surrender of the chartered rights of the Steamboat Company of 
Georgia; and it being understood that the stockholders in the said company 



Transportation. 473 



will be willing to surrender their claims under said charter on being released 
from the debt due by them to the State, it is expedient to release the said debt 
on the condition of receiving such surrender, and his excellency the governor 
be authorized and requested to take the necessary measures for carrying this 
into effect." 

These recommendations passed in the shape of a resolution, " That his ex- 
cellency the governor be requested to ascertain from the Steamboat Company 
of Georgia the lowest terms on which the said company will surrender its char- 
ter to the State and that he be requested to communicate the result, together 
with such information as he may be able to obtain, tending to show the expe- 
diency or inexpediency of the State's making the said purchase to the next 
Legislature." 

In 1824 the Steamboat Company memorialized the Legislature to rescind 
the contract of 1820, whereby $100,000 of the internal improvement fund had 
been invested in its stock. While called an investment, the transaction seems 
to have been a sort of conditional loan to the company, of which it had then 
repaid $32,000, and the answer to the memorial was that if the company would 
in six months thereafter pay into the treasury $68,000, and surrender its exclu- 
sive right of steam navigation of the rivers of the State the State would re- 
turn the company its stock and mortgages, rescind the original agreement of 
loan and give the company an acquittance in full of all demands. The next 
year the company tendered the governor the sum of $68,000 in bills of the 
Bank of Darien, which his excellency declined to receive on the ground that 
he construed the resolution to mean gold and silver, or specie funds. 

After this we find no trace of any effort to deprive the Steamboat Company 
of its exclusive privileges. To the contrary, in 1833. the company was au- 
thorized to run a railroad or canal from Augusta to such point below the 
shoals and obstructions near the city as it might deem advisable, and for this 
purpose was authorized to condemn such land as might be necessary for the 
road bed or canal, and for three hundred feet on either side. No other canal 
or line of rail was to be constructed within ten miles of the route selected by 
the company, without its consent. For twenty-five years the company was to 
have the right to use its railroad or canal, and at the expiration of that time 
the State was to have an option upon it at par value, but if not then bought 
the property and franchise were to remain to the company forever. In the 
same year the Central Railroad was incorporated, and in 1838 the Augusta 
and Waynesboro road, now the Augusta and Savannah, and the completion 
of these connecting systems was probably the cause of no action being taken 
by the Steamboat Company. 

In 1834 the charter of the Steamboat Company was extended for twenty 
years after December 19, 1837, the termination of its original charter, but with- 
out the exclusive privilege originally granted. The act declares that after De- 



474 History of Augusta. 



cember 19, 1837, tlie exclusive franchise section of the charter shall stand re- 
pealed, but it is evident that some years before that the company had intimated 
its acquiescence in the chartering of other steamboat lines. The first of these 
charters being in the year 1834 when the old company's charter was granted, 
there was probably some tacit understanding whereby in consideration of an 
extension the company was not to enforce its exclusive franchise against new 
lines. 

Be that as it may, in 1835 sundry citizens of Augusta and Savannah, namely 
Amory Sibley, Gazaway B. Lamar, John Bones, Moses Roff, Charles Lippitt, 
John M. Adams, David W. St. John, James Hubbard, William P. Rathbone, 
Samuel D. Corbitt, and David L. Adams, were incorporated as the Iron Steam- 
boat Company, with a capital stock of $100,000. in shares of $iOO each, in- 
creasable by a two-thirds vote to $400,000. The company was authorized by 
steamboats, or any other kind of vessels, to navigate any of the waters of Geor- 
gia for passenger or freight traffic, and to insure freights against fire or marine 
loss. There were to be twelve directors, seven resident in Augusta and five in 
Savannah. The main office was to be in Augusta, and the Savannah direct- 
ors were to manage the business at that end of the line. 

In 1836 the Savannah and Augusta Steamboat Company was incorporated 
with a capital of $80,000, increasable by a two-thirds vote to $150,000. This 
company was authorized to navigate any of the waters of the State with ves- 
sels propelled by steam, either employed alone, or in warping, towing, or oth- 
erwise impelling other boats and vessels, rafts, floats, or arks. The incorpora- 
tors were Samuel H. Parkman, William Duncan, Henry Harper, J. and W. Har- 
per, John P. King, G. B. Cumming. Benjamin Burroughs, Edward Padelford, 
P^ay & Co., Adams & Burroughs, Samuel D. Corbitt, Daniel Kirkpatrick, and 
John S. Combs. 

In 1 85 I George W. Garmany, Moses A. Cohen, Jeremiah W. Stokes, Or- 
lando A. Wood, Joseph J. Claghorn and John Cunningham, jr., (Wood, Clag- 
horn & Co.), Alexander Thomas, James Skinner, Andrew Burnside and Ed- 
ward J. Jones and Samuel N. Papot (Jones & Papot), were incorporated as the 
Union Steamboat Company of Georgia and South Carolina, for the purpose 
of conducting a carrying trade by steam and other boats on the Savannah 
River, with a capital stock of $21,500, increasable to $100,000. From run- 
ning between Hamburg, Augusta and Savannah, this line was often called the 
Augusta and Hamburg Steamboat Company. 

In 1859 James J. Field, Eliel Lockhart, Drury B. Cade, Joel T. Lockhart. 
Foster Blodgett, jr., and William Gibson were incorporated as "The Augusta. 
Petersburg and Savannah River Steam and Pole Boat Navigation Company of 
Northeastern Georgia," with a capital of $100,000, increasable to $i,ooo,000. 
The object of this company was the opening and clearing out a channel in the 
Savannah and Tugalo Rivers to the Georgia boundary line so as to admit the 



Transportation. 475 



passage of light steam and pole boats of at least fifty tons burden. The office 
was fixed at Augusta, but the company did not get into operation, the war 
soon afterwards breaking out. 

By act of September 22, 1887, Zachariah McCord, James Tobin, James J. 
Dicks, Joseph H. Day, and Benjamin H. Smith, jr., were incorporated as the 
Augusta Steamboat Company. The previous incorporation of this company 
under the general navigation act of 1881 was confirmed, and it was declared 
that as the charter was granted to secure water navigation and the benefit of 
competition, any contract by it with any railroad company intended to defeat 
competition or encourage monopoly should be void, and the stock of any offi- 
cer or stockholder concerned in such agreement should be ferfeited, and to that 
end any stockholder, or any merchant in Augusta, or any member of the Au- 
gusta Exchange might institute proceedings. 

This closes the list of incorporated steamboat companies doing business on 
the Savannah from Augusta, and it but remains to trace the history of the ves- 
sels employed. 

The first use to which steam was put was, as has been seen, in towing or 
warping. The early steamboats were mere tugs of small power, which pain- 
fully towed the ordinary river boats, or arks, along the straight stretches of the 
river, and warped them around the bends. The next step was that the steam- 
boats were made longer and stronger, and with a barge lashed on either side 
plowed their way up and down the stream. Then the third era was entered 
on and the steamboat itself carried the freight. During all this while the side- 
wheel was used, and it was considered a very startling and useful innovation 
when Mr. John Moore adopted the idea in vogue for some years prior on the 
Western rivers, and employed one large stern wheel, thus enabling the width 
and consequent carrying capacity of the vessel to be greatly increased. 

The names of most if not all the steamboats navigating the river have been 
preserved to us, and we have pretty full accounts of the catastrophes closing 
some of their careers. The Steamboat Company of Georgia had at various pe- 
riods some thirteen boats: the Enterprise, Sam Howard, Savannah, Augusta, 
(No. i). South Carolina, Georgia, Tugalo, Cherokee, Tennessee, T. S. Metcalf, 
D. L. Adams, A7igusta(No. 2), Chatham. The boats named Augusta had ill- 
luck, the Augusta No. i being destroyed by fire at the city bridge, and the Au- 
gusta No. 2 burned at Gray's Point. The D. L. Adams, was sold for use on a 
South American river, and the Chatham was captured while running the block- 
ade during the war. 

The Iron Steamboat Company ran six boats : the Free Trade, John Ran- 
dolph, Lamar, Hamburg, Sibley, and W. H. Stark. The Hamburg was burnt 
at Hager Slager, and the Stark sunk at Silver Bluff. 

The Savannah and Augusta Steamboat Company had three boats, the Ogle- 
thorpe, which blew up at Beck's Ferry ; the Elbert, which was burned at Buz- 
zard's Bay, and the Hamburg. 



4/6 History of Augusta. 



The Steamboat Company of Georgia and South Carolina, commonly called 
the Augusta and Hamburg line, had two boats, the H. L. Cook and the Oregon. 
The latter sunk in 1854. 

The Augusta Steamboat Company of 1887, has two boats, the Progress and 
the Advance, both built at Augusta. 

Besides the incorporated companies there were a number of private lines. 
Gazaway B. Lamar ran eight boats, the William Gaston, built at Augusta; the 
Governor Taylor, G. B. Lamar, Free Trade, John Randolph. Mary Snmviers, 
De Rosetto., and Lamar. The Free Trade and Lamar were Iron Steamboat 
Company's vessels. The G. B. Lamar ^z^s burnt at Savannah; the Free Trade 
blew up at Baldnaker's Point ; the John Randolph was destroyed at the bom- 
bardment of Charleston, and the Lamar was captured running the blockade. 
The Mary Summers was used in the Mexican War. 

Samuel Moore and Thomas N. Philpot ran the Fashion line at the outbreak 
of the war, consisting of the John A. Moore, burnt afterwards on the Edisto 
River; the Talomico, sunk at Blanket Point, and the Columbia. 

There were some twenty odd other boats running at various times before 
the war between Savannah and Augusta, many of which were the subject of 
disaster. The Christopher -wdi?, burnt at Blanket Point; the Governor Troup, at 
Half Moon; and the Ell Cell, on the South Carolina coast; the Sylvan was 
burnt, as also the R. H. May, which was burnt a short distance below Augusta. 
It was the first steamboat from Augusta to Savannah after the cessation of hos- 
tilities. The Amazon was sunk at Sand Bar ferry; the Elize, at Old Keefe's 
Point ; the Leesbnrg, at Gray's Point; the Hard Times, at Kirk's Bar; and the 
R. E. Lee, within a mile of Savannah ; the Eclipse blew up at Mill Stone Land- 
ing ; and the J. G. Lawton, at Gum Stump Landing. The vessels which lived 
out their lives were the Washington, on which La Fayette visited Augusta; the 
Tvanhoc, Forester, Santee, LLancock, Fashion, Columbia, Union, Express, Inez, 
St. Claire, and Baudry Moore. 

The Charleston line, or the one plying between Hamburg and Charleston, 
had fifteen boats: The Henry SJinltz, which blew up at the Augusta bridge 
from an explosion of powder in her hold; the William Lowndes, burnt at Flour 
Gap; Cain, burnt at the foot of Campbell street, near the present location of 
the Riverside Mills; the Caledonia, sunk about the same place; St. John,%\\\'iV 
at Gray Point ; Edgefield, sunk at Burton's Ferr}' ; Duncan McCraig, blown 
up at dock ; the Pendleton, Liberty, Andrew Jackson, John D. Morgan, John 
Stoucy, William Scabrook, Charleston, and Augusta of Charleston. 

It will be seen that about seventy steamboats navigated the Savannah from 
about 1820 to 1865. As many as fifteen in a week would arrive and depart, 
but the dangers of the voyage were many. About thirty were destroyed, some 
thirteen burned, six blown up, and eleven sunk. Three were lost at Gray's 
Point, two at Blanket Point, the rest scattered along the river. 



Transportation. 477 



Since the war the boats put on the river hav^e been the PV. T. Wheless, burnt 
at Savannah; the Alice Clark, lost on the CaroHna coast; the Mary Fisher, 
sunk at Parachucla; the Katie, the Ethel, Neiv South, Progress, and Advance. 

Before passing from the subject of the Savannah River we must give some 
account of the bridge over that stream at Augusta, the same having been a 
great highway of traffic with the city for about one hundred years. In 1768 
the Colonial government established a ferry from tl>e center of the city to the 
blufif just opposite, on the Carolina shore. In 1790 this ferry franchise was 
lodged by the Legislature of Georgia in Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, 
with the further right to build a bridge over the river at or near the ferry site. 
The bridge was to be at least sixteen feet in width, and, as a rent therefor, 
Hampton was annually to pay to the commissioners of Augusta fifty pounds 
sterling, securing such rental by a mortgage of the bridge and one acre of land 
on the South Carolina side, on which the bridge abutted. The master, pro- 
fessors, and all students for the time being, of Richmond Academy were for- 
ever to pass free, but on all others Hampton was empowered to levy a toll 
according to rates specified in the act: Foot passengers, threepence; man on 
horseback, sixpence; four- horse wagon, loaded, four shillings and eightpence, 
etc. The bridge was to be ready for use February 17, 1791, and this condition 
seems to have been complied with. The "Yazoo Freshet," of 1796 swept it 
away, and in the next year the Legislature renewed Hampton's grant and gave 
him two years in which to replace the structure. It appears that in 1799 this 
was done, but some years later this new bridge was destroyed, and in 1809 the 
Legislature empowered Walter Leigh and Edward Rowell to construct another 
with following tolls : Foot passengers, six and one-fourth cents; hogshead of 
tobacco, twenty-five cents ; four- horse wagon loaded, $i, etc., etc. 

This, too, was destroyed, and in 1814 the Legislature granted the bridge 
franchise to John McKinne and Henry Shultz. In 1813 the Legislature of 
South Carolina had granted Henry Shultz and Lewis Cooper the right to build 
a toll-bridge from the South Carolina bank to Augusta. Cooper assigned his 
interest to John McKinne, and hence in 18 14 the above stated Georgia grant. 
At the time this was made McKinne and Shultz had already constructed " a 
strong, elegant, and substantial bridge." Tlie Carolina and Georgia grants 
agreed in their rate of toll, which was as follows : Wagon and team, or four- 
wheeled carriage, seventy-five cents; two-wheeled carriage or c.irt, thirty- 
seven and one -half cents ; rolling hogshead, twenty- five cents; man and horse, 
twelve and one-half cents; foot passenger, si.K and one-fourth cents ; cattle, six 
and one-fourth cents; hog, sheep, or goat, four cents. 

Prior to 1823 the Bank of the State of Georgia had become the owner of the 
bridge, the same having been sold on execution against McKinne and Shultz, 
and in that year the legislative committee appointed to inquire into the causes 
of Augusta's then commercial decline, found as one of the reasons that business 



478 History of Augusta. 



was driven away by tlie tolls levied at the bridge. They therefore reported 
" that it would greatly conduce to the prosperity of the commerce and agricul- 
ture of the State, by preventing the diversion of the former from Augusta and 
Savannah to Hamburg and Ciiarleston, to purchase the bridge over Savan- 
nah River between Augusta and Hamburg, and to render it free under proper 
regulations to persons trading with Augusta. And that the same may be done 
without any advance of money from the treasury, either by the transfer of stock 
held by the State in the Bank of the State of Georgia, the present proprietors 
of the bridge, or by a pledge of the taxes of the county of Richmond for a term 
of years equal to that during which the citizens of Hamburg are exempted 
from taxation [/. e. five], the Bank of the State of Georgia having signified its 
willingness to transfer the same, at cost, for the purpose aforesaid." The report 
was tabled, and matters, therefore, so far as the bridge was concerned, remained 
as before. 

In 1830 the Legislature of South Carolina renewed to the Bank of the State 
of Georgia the bridge franchise granted to Shultz and Cooper in 1813, for the 
period of fourteen years after the expiration of the old franchise in December, 
1 834, and in 1 833 the Legislature of Georgia renewed to the Bank for ten years 
the franchise given by it to Shultz and McKinne. 

In 1834 the Legislature conferred on J. K. Kilburn, James Harper, Jona- 
than Meigs and William Harper, their associates and assigns, the right to build 
a bridge across the Savannah at the western end of the city from the end of 
McKinne or Mill street, and to charge the same rates of toll thereon as were 
allowed at the lower bridge. This bridge was swept away in the freshet of 1 840. 

In 1838 the Bank of the State of Georgia sold the lower bridge to Gaza- 
way B. Lamar, and in 1840 Lamar and the then owners of the upper bridge 
sold both to the city council of Augusta. 

In 1840 the Legislature confirmed this purchase, and enacted that council 
should thenceforth "have all the powers, authority, and privileges vested by 
law in the late ov\ ners of said bridges, and the exclusive privilege of building, 
erecting, and keeping up bridgt-s across the Savannah River at Augusta within 
the corporate limits of said city (which are hereby extended on the north over 
said river to the boundary line between this State and South Carolina), with 
power to collect the toll now authorized by law, in relation to the bridges stand- 
ing at the time of such purchase. Provided that nothing in this act contained 
shall be so construed as to impair the right, title, claim, or interest of any 
person or persons in and to the lower bridge, commonly called the Augusta 
bridge." 

Out of this act grew an acrimonious controversy as to the true boundary 
line between South Carolina and Georgia. The whole question supposed to 
have been settled by the convention of Beaufort was reopened, and while the 
right of the city council of Augusta to maintain and operate the lower bridge 



Transportation, 479 



was established in the Htigation which ensued, it appears that this result was 
arrived at on principles which left the boundary question still open. 

In 18 1 3 South Carolina granted Shultz and Cooper the right to operate a 
toll-bridge over the Savannah for twenty- one years, or till 1834. Shortly 
thereafter Cooper assigned his interest to John McKinne. In 18 14 Georgia 
granted Shultz and McKinne a similar right for twenty years, or until the same 
period as the Carolina grant, to wit : 1834. The bridge was built by Shultz 
and McKinne under these concurrent grants, and about 1823 became the pro- 
perty of the Bank of the State of Georgia by purchase. In 1830 South Caro- 
lina renewed the Shultz-Cooper grant to the Bank for fourteen years after the 
expiration of that grant, or till 1848. In 1833 Georgia renewed its Shultz- 
McKinne grant to the bank for ten years after its expiration, or up to 1844. 
In 1838 the Bank sold the bridge to Gazaway B. Lamar, who in 1840 conveyed 
to the city conncil of Augusta. In the same year Georgia confirmed this 
purchase and granted the council the exclusive right to maintain bridges across 
the river within the corporate limits. Up to 1843 the city held as assignee 
of Lamar and under the South Carolina renewal of 1830 and the Georgia 
renewal of 1833. After 1843 and up to 1848, the expiration of the Carolina 
renewal, the city held, so far as South Carolina was concerned, under that re- 
newal, but 1848 arrived, the Carolina renewal expired, and the war began. In 
1845 South Carohna had vested the bridge franchise in the South Carolina 
Railroad Company from and after 1848, but in 1848 this grant was withdrawn 
and the franchise granted to Shultz and McKinne with the proviso that they 
should not collect toll until the litigation then pending in the Supreme Court 
of the United States as to the right of the city to the bridge was determined. 
It was there held that the city had the rights of the State Bank, and was there- 
fore a grantee under South Carolina till 1848. In 1849 South Carolina granted 
the bridge franchise to Shultz and McKinne with the right to take toll, the 
idea being that the grant to the city council had come to an end in 1848. As 
matters then stood, the city had a Georgia grant and Shultz and McKinne had 
a Carolina grant. It was claimed that the Georgia grant was all sufficient upon 
the ground that the jurisdiction of Georgia extended to the northern bank of 
the Savannah. South Carolina denied this and a voluminous correspondence 
ensued between the officials of the two States. The South Carolina Legislature 
denounced the levy of tolls at the bridges as an "obstruction to the commerce and 
intercourse between the people of Georgia and South Carolina." Colonel I. 
W. Hay ne, attorney- general for South Carolina, presented an extended report to 
Governor Means of that State, going to show that the jurisdiction of Georgia 
only extended to the middle of the stream. A copy of this was transmitted 
to Governor Howell Cobb, of Georgia, who claimed that his State owned to the 
north bank, Attorney- General Hayne rejoined, and Governor Cobb laid the 
matter before the Georgia Legislature. After a time the controversy died 



480 History of Augusta. 



down, but no one can read the official correspondence without recognizing that 
the real boundary was left as unsettled as it was found. The present laws of 
South Carolina say the Savannah River is the boundary between that State and 
Georgia, "the line being low- water mark at the southern shore of the most 
northern stream of said river where the middle of the river is broken by islands 
and middle threads of the stream where the river flows in one stream or volume." 
The present laws of Georgia say: "The boundary between Georgia and South 
Carolina shall be the line described as running from the mouth of the River 
Savannah, up said river and the rivers Tugalo and Chattooga to the point where 
the last named river intersects with the thirty-fifth parallel of north latitude, 
conforming as much as possible to the line agreed on by the commissioners of 
said States, at Beaufort on the 28th of April, 1787." What was agreed on 
remains, as has been seen, disputed. 

In 1827 the Legislature of Soutli Carolina authorized the formation of a 
company to construct a canal or railroad between Charleston and Hamburg, 
which is the origin of the South Carolina Railroad, one of the oldest, if not the 
oldest in the United States. In 1833 it was in operation between Charleston 
and Hamburg, and in 1836 entered Augusta. With the success of this then 
novel experiment the railroad history of Augusta begins. 

In May, 1828, the first company was organized, and the next )'ear one 
hundred feet of railroad track were laid in Charleston along Wentworth street, 
and the first car drawn by a mule. In June, 1829, the stockholders directed 
the beginning of the road between Charleston and Augusta. The first mile 
of the road was built in 1830, and the cars were propelled by large sails. The 
first steam locomotive ran over the road in 1831 ; capacity of freight cars, 6,000 
pounds; seating capacity of coaches thirteen persons. In 1836 Augusta and 
Charleston were connected. The Columbia branch was completed in 1842, 
and shortly afterwards the two roads were consolidated under the name of the 
South Carolina Railroad Company. It is unnecessary to dwell longer upon the 
early history of the road or to more than mention its many vicissititudes during 
the war and immediately after. The company lost heavily by the war, and was 
left in a most deplorable condition financially and otherwise. It managed to 
struggle along, however, until 1878, when the old road was put into the hands 
of a receiver. 

Shortly after this event the road was bought by its present owners, and 
became the South Carolina Railway Company, when as by the touch of a 
magic wand there sprang up palace cars, swift locomotives, steel rails, mogul 
engines capable of hauling fifty cars, freight cars of forty thousand pounds ca- 
pacity, immense wharves and warehouses at tide water where ships can unload 
directly into the cars, neat and improved stations all along the line, and a gen- 
eral air of thrift everywhere, demonstrating that the new life infused in the cor- 
poration affected all with which it came in contact. 



Transportation. 48 1 



The wharves, as mentioned above, of the South CaroHna Railway now run to 
tide water, where they have a wharf frontage of one thousand feet. The depth 
of water at low tide is twenty-five feet. The largest ships can come alongside 
at any time, and eight or nine vesels can be loaded or unloaded at one time. 
There are two warehouses with storage room for fourteen thousand tons bulk 
guano ; a storehouse for general merchandise of three thousand tons capacity, and 
four other storehouses of two thousand tons. There are one hundred thousand 
square feet in wharf room. An automatic railroad runs from the edge of the 
wharf back into the ^varehouses. Bulk guano is unloaded from the ships by a 
derrick which projects from the elevated road directly over the ship. Great 
iron buckets are lowered and raised from this derrick by steam, the buckets 
descending rapidly into the hold of a ship, where they are filled and immediately 
hoisted up to the automatic car. As soon as the car is loaded, it moves off by 
its own weight, rushes along the railroad and disappears into the warehouse, 
where its load is dumped into bins, and the cars return like a flash to the starting 
point, ready for another load. All this work is done automatically. Freight 
is loaded and unloaded from ships by an endless movable platform, something 
on the order of a treadmill. The boxes and packages, placed on one end, are 
carried smoothly along without the slightest jar to the place where they are to 
be taken off. The whole is worked by steam. Cotton shipped from Augusta, 
for foreign or domestic ports, can be unloaded from the cars into the ships. 

The success of the South Carolina Railroad stimulated like enterprises in 
Georgia. In 1831 the Legislature authorized "the formation of a company 
for constructing a railroad or turnpike from the city of Augusta to Eatonton, 
and thence westward to the Chattahoochee River, with branches thereto." 
The company was to be called the Augusta and Eatonton Turnpike and Rail- 
road Company. Its capital was fixed at $1,000,000, with liberty to double 
the same, and subscriptions were to be taken under the superintendence of 
commissioners at Eatonton, Milledgeville, Sparta, Warrenton, Monticello, Mad- 
ison, Greensborough, and Augusta, the commissioners at the latter place be- 
ing William Gumming, Samuel Hale, and P. H. Smead. On $350,000 of stock 
being subscribed the company was ipso facto to be formed, and an election was 
then to be held for a president and twelve directors. In this election share- 
holders were to vote by the following scale : i to 2 shares, i vote ; 3 to 4, 2 ; 
5 to 6, 3; 7 to 8, 4; 9 to II, 5; 12 to 15, 6; 16 to 20, 7 ; 21 to 26, 8; 27 to 
33. 9; 34 to 40, 10; and for each 10 over 40, i vote. The charges were fixed 
at not to exceed fifty cents per one hundred weight, and twenty-five cents per 
cubic foot on articles of measurement, for each one hundred miles, and six 
cents per mile for passengers. The company was exempted from taxation for 
ten years, and given the right to farm out its franchises. This seems the first 
railroad act in Georgia, and while never becoming operative, having been re- 
pealed two years after, serve to show that Augusta first contemplated railway 
transit in the State of Georgia. 



482 History of Augusta. 



In 1833 there was passed "an act to incorporate the Georgia Railroad Com- 
pany, with powers to construct a rail or turnpike road from the city of Augusta, 
with branches extending to the towns of Eatonton, Madison, in Morgan county, 
and Athens, to be carried beyond those places in the discretion of said com- 
pany." The company to be organized under this act was directed to confine 
its first efforts to the completion of a railroad communication between the city 
of Augusta and some point in the interior of the State, to be determined by 
the stockholders, and, on the completion of such communication, which was to 
be called the Union Railroad, to construct three branch roads, one to Athens, 
one to Eatonton, and one to Madison, and if it deemed proper, to continue the 
Athens branch to the Tennessee River. For thirty-six years the company 
was to have the exclusive right of constructing railroads to Augusta from any 
point within twenty miles of said main line and branches. The stock of the 
company was fixed at 15,000 shares of $100 each, and the organization was to 
be completed on this basis, but thereafter was increasable to such amount as 
the company might think its necessities required. 

To open subscriptions commissioners were appointed in the following places 
for the shares of stock mentioned, namely: Athens, 2,500; Eatonton, 2,500; 
Madison, 2,000 ; Greensborough, 1,500 ; Warrenton, 500; Crawfordville, 500; 
Washington, Lexington, Appling, and Sparta, each 1,000; and Augusta, 1,500, 
Thomas Gumming, William H. Turpin, William C. Micou, and John W. Wilde 
being the commissioners at that point. The books were to be opened on Feb- 
ruary 5, 1834, and remain open ten days, at the end of which time the lists 
were to be sent the Athens commissioners, William Williams, James Camak, 
Stephens Thomas, and William Bearing, who were to aggregate the subscrip- 
tions, and if five thousand shares had been taken, were to call a general meet- 
ing of stockholders for organization, the residue of the stock to be sold subse- 
quently. Each stockholder was entitled to one vote for each share, and a pres- 
ident and twelve directors were to be elected, to serve twelve months. The 
company on being organized was to be known as the Georgia Railroad Com- 
pany. It was authorized to condemn such land as might be necessary for its 
purposes and was empowered to build railroads, or common roads for the use 
of steam carriages thereon, in its discretion. It was given the exclusive right 
to transport freight and passengers over its lines, provided the tariff did not 
exceed fifty cents per hundred weight on heavy articles, and ten cents per 
cubic foot on articles of measurement for each hundred miles, and five cents 
per mile for passengers. (This clause of the charter has been construed by the 
Supreme Court of the United States as giving no right to the company to fix 
its own charges, not exceeding the maximum stated, but as granting simply 
the exclusive right to transport, leaving the State free to fix charges in its dis- 
cretion by means of a railroad commission or otherwise.) After the expiration 
of thirty-six years from the completion of any of the roads mentioned in the 



Transportation. 483 



charter to Augusta, the exclusive right of the company to build and use rail- 
roads within twenty miles of its lines, was to lapse, but as to its own works the 
charter was perpetual. The stock was exempt from taxation for seven years 
after completion of any of the lines, and thereafter was only to pay a tax of 
one half of one per cent, on net income. This clause, also, has been before the 
Supreme Court of the United States and by that tribunal held to be a contract 
between the State and company, which forever inhibits the former from any 
other or higher rate. It was further provided that whenever the holders of as 
many as three thousand shares should unite to build any of the branch roads, 
they should become a separate company or companies, and be called respect- 
ively the Eatonton Railroad, the Greensborough and Madison Railroad, and 
the Athens Railroad, but such separate companies, if formed, might unite with 
each other. 

This act was the result of the successful completion of the South Carolina 
Railroad. On July 4, 1833, that line was in full operation between Charleston 
and Hamburg, and its stock which up to that time had been a drug in the 
market, was quoted at 105. The fare for the full trip, 136 miles, was $6.75, 
with an allowance of 75 pounds of baggage ; for less distance, five cents per 
mile. The company had five engines, the " Best Friend," having four wheels, 
received December i, 1830, and costing $4,000; the "West Point," four wheels, 
received April 2, 1831, and costing $3,250; the "South Carolina," having 
eight wheels, received January 3, 1832, cost $5,000; the " Charleston," eight 
wheels, received March 4, 1833, cost $5,750, and the " Edisto," eight wheels, 
received June 5, 1833, cost $5,750. On May 10, 1833, its receipts were from 
freight, $67.22; passengers, $49.65; total, $116.87; ^"^ ^or the week end- 
ing May 10, it reports 400 passengers carried, showing an annual carriage of 
some 20,000 passengers, and a gross revenue of about $43,000, small figures 
now, but great then. 

In Augusta a public meeting to consider the building of a railroad from Au- 
gusta to Athens, was called for July 20, 1833, by Samuel Hale, W.W. Montgom- 
ery, James M'Laws, William T. Gould, and John P. King, and at the meeting 
Henry H, Gumming, W. W. Montgomery, James Harper, James W. Davies, 
and William C. Micou were appointed a committee to organize a company. 

The result was the act above mentioned. The line from Augusta to Athens 
first received attention and sometimes was called the Athens Railroad Com- 
pany, as in an act of 1834 in which the city council of Augusta and trustees of 
Richmond Academy were empowered to convey to the company ten acres of 
the town common lots, but in 1835 a healing act was passed in which it was 
declared that the true name was the Georgia Railroad Company, and confirmed 
to that corporation all conveyances under the other style. 

In 1835 the charter of 1833 was amended. The amendatory act opens 
with a recital " that the people of the West have in contemplation to make a 



484 History of Augusta. 



communication between the city of Cincinnati and the Southern Atlantic coast, 
by means of a raih'oad, and the best route for said communication is beUevcd 
to be through the State of Georgia, and the building of the Georgia Railroad 
is now in progress, and will be an important link in the line of said communi- 
cation." The stockholders of the Georgia Railroad Company were incorpo- 
rated as the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company. The stock was fixed at 
$2,000,000, one-half of which might be applied to banking purposes (one-half 
of such part to be in gold and silver coin) until the completion of the road to 
Athens and one of the southern branches through Greensborough, after which 
time any unemployed capital might be used in banking. A history of the 
banking adjunct of the Georgia Railroad will be found elsewhere in this work 
in the chapter on banking, and we need here, therefore, only briefly recapitu- 
late the further provisions of the act as to this particular franchise ; the com- 
pany was authorized to establish branch banks, not exceeding three in num- 
ber, at such points in the State as it might deem best, always first obtaining 
the consent of the municipal authorities ; the debt of the company was never 
to exceed three times the amount of its capital stock, and on a failure to pay its 
bills on demand in specie a penalty often per cent, in addition to the usual 
ate of interest, was to accrue ; for the redemption of such notes the stockhold- 
ers were individually liable in proportion to the number of shares by them held 
respectively. 

Apart from the banking franchise, the act of 1835 had the following provi- 
sions : The principal office was located at Athens, and all elections and stock- 
holders' meetings were to be held there unless the directors should otherwise 
order on special occasions ; the Union Railroad, or main branch, was to be 
completed in four years from the date of the act, or by December 18, 1839, and 
the Athens branch, and one of the Southern branches through Greensborough, 
to be designated by the stockholders was to be completed in six years, or by 
December 18, 1841, and upon default the banking franchise was to be forfeited ; 
if the main road was completed by the time ordered that franchise was to con- 
tinue for twenty-five years thereafter. Nothing in the charter was to prevent 
the State from chartering a railroad from Macon to the Tennessee line, or one 
crossing the Georgia road at any point west of Eatonton, Madison, or Athens. 
Finally it was provided that no foreigner should directly or indirectly own stock 
in this company on pain of forfeiture thereof to the State. This act was ac- 
cepted by the stockholders on January 12, 1836. 

A few days after this act another was passed allowing the company to build 
a branch of its railroad to Warrenton and thence to Sparta, or to allow others 
to do so and connect with the Georgia road, which act was accepted by the 
stockholders May 10, 1836. 

In 1836 the company was relieved from producing its books in court in any 
case in which it might be a party, and its officials were excused from attend- 



Transportation. 485 



ance as witnesses in like case, it being provided that the testimony required 
should be taken by a commission. In the same year the company was empow- 
ered to build a branch road from Washington, Wilkes county, to intersect its 
main line at some point in Taliaferro county, and to increase its capital stock 
$200,000 for that purpose. In this year the company declared its first divi- 
dend. The capital stock was then $858,615, and dividend No. i paid in No- 
vember, 1836, was $26,018. 

In 1837 the company was authorized to extend its road from Madison via 
Covington to the State road, which amendment to its charter was accepted 
May 15, 1838. 

In 1839 the road was in operation to Greensborough, trains leaving Au- 
gusta at 6 A. M. and reaching Greensborough at i P. M., or eighty-three miles 
in seven hours; fare, $4.25. 

In 1840 the restriction on foreigners holding stock was modified so as to 
allow not exceeding one-third of the stock to be so held, which amendment 
the company accepted May 11, 1841. 

In 1 841 the principal office and place of holding elections was transferred 
from Athens to Augusta; accepted May 10, 1842. 

In 1843 the company was empowered to receive its own stock in payment 
of debts due it, provided that the capital was not thereby reduced below 
$2,000,000, and a summary method was directed for the collection by the com- 
pany of debts due it by stockholders by levy on their stock as in cases of fore- 
closure of mortgages on personal property. In this year the main line was con- 
structed to Atlanta, and two years later the branch roads were built. 

In 1850 the company was allowed to increase its capital stock to $5,000,- 
000, provided the banking capital of $1,000,000 should not be increased, and 
was empowered to subscribe for $250,000 stock in the Nashville and Chatta- 
nooga Railroad. The right to construct a branch road to Washington which 
had lapsed, was renewed. In this same year the Washington Railroad and 
Plank Road Company was authorized to construct a rail or plank road from 
Washington to the line of the Georgia Railroad, and in 1852 this company was 
consolidated with the Georgia Railroad. 

In 1858 the company was authorized to construct a branch road from 
Greensborough or Madison to Eatonton, and increase its capital stock suf- 
ficiently to enable it so to do, but in the next year the act was repealed. 

The company had now been in existence a quarter of a century, and from 
its earlier reports we gather much interesting information as to its establish- 
ment. 

The building of the road was slow work. On November i, 1837, it was 
opened for business with twenty miles of track, the northern terminus being 
Berzelia. The progress from that time may be seen by the following tabular 
statement of miles in use : 



486 



History of Augusta. 



Miles in Use. 

From November i , 1 837, to May i , 1 838 40 

From May I, 1838, to May I, 1839 75 

May 1 , 1 839, to April i , 1 840 88 

From April I, 1840. to April I, 1841 105 

For year ending April i , 1 842. . . 1 47 

For year ending April i, 1843 148 

For year ending April i , 1 844 148 

For year ending April 1, 1845 155 

For year ending April i, 1846 ' 195 

For year ending April i, 1847 213 

For year ending April i, 1848 213 

For year ending April i, 1849 213 

The 213 miles completed in 1847 comprised the main line from Augusta to 
Atlanta 171 miles and the Athens branch 39 miles. Not until 1847 was the 
Athens branch run by steam ; in that year a small engine weighing 3,36 tons 
was put on, relieving the horse-power which had up to that time been em- 
ployed at a cost of $1,280 per annum. The rolling stock consisted in 1847 of 
13 passenger cars, 8 with 8 wheels, and 5 with 4 wheels, 149 freight and stock 
cars, 65 flat cars, 3 8-wheel baggage and mail cars and 23 locomotives. The 
names, weight, and commencement of service of these engines are given by 
John Edgar Thomson, the chief engineer of the road at that time, as follows: 

Name. Weight, Tons. Commencement of Service. 

Pennsylvania 1 3.08 

Georgia ii-59 

Florida 1 1.50 

Alabama 11.50 

Louisiana ii-33 

Tennessee 14.40 

William Bearing 12.90 

Virginia 1 2,96 

Mississippi 1 2.90 

Kentucky 1 2.90 

William Gumming 12.35 

James Camak 12.35 

Athenian 1 1 .08 

Cherokee 1 5-6o 

South Carolina 1 5.68 

North Carolina 1 5.70 

Eagle, 13.14 

Oothcaloga 1 5-6o 

Maryland 1 5-70 

Fairy 3-36 

Besides the " Fairy" were three other light weights named "Chinkapin," 
"Dart" and "Swallow." The largest locomotive then in use on the road, 
called by the chief engineer, "eight- wheel passenger engine," cost $7,500 laid 
down. Of the 22 engines in 1847 ^2 were on the road in active use and good 



May 


5. 


1837 


May 


5. 


t837 


Dec. 


27. 


1837 


Jan. 


12, 


(838 


Feb. 


2, 


838 


May 


29, 


838 


Nov. 


6, 


[838 


Dec. 


24. 


[838 


Dec. 


28, 


[838 


Mch. 


24. 


1839 


Dec. 


14. 


1839 


Dec. 


23. 


•839 


Jan. 


3. 


1845 


Apr. 


28, 


1845 


Nov. 


I, 


1845 


Nov. 


4. 


[845 


Dec. 


5. 


1845 


Oct. 


28, 


1846 


Jan. 


2, 


1847 


Mch. 


16, 


1847 



Transportation. 487 

order, 5 were in round-house in complete order and ready for use, and 4 were 
under repair. The total cost of repairs to locomotives during the eleven years 
the road had then been in operation was $71,591.42. The "Pennsylvania," 
the first engine put on the road, had cost for repairs $6,804.59, O"" ^^ average 
of $618.59 per annum. 

The names of the stations then on the main line, their distance in miles and 
decimals from Augusta, and height above sea level we condense from some 
valuable tables in the chief engineer's reports : 

Station. Distance, Miles. Above Sea-Level, Feet. 

Augusta I47-40 

Belair i o. 323.92 

Berzelia 20.845 5i7-30 

Dearing 28.954 489.30 

Thomson 37. 530 530.60 

Camak 46.930 6 1 3.40 

Cumming 58.853 647.20 

Crawfordville 64.039 617.80 

Union Point 76.001 673 55 

Greensboro 83.197 626.80 

Buckhead 95-659 641.50 

Madison ... 103.310 695. 

Rutledge. 112. 192 728.56 

Social Circle 1 19.389 890.30 

Covington 129.919 762.88 

Conyers 140.347 909. 

Lithonia 146.723 954. 

' Stone Mountain 1 55.002 1,054.78 

Decatur 164.641 1,054.80 

Atlanta 170.701 1,050.13 

The chief engineer reports the cost of a "close freight-car," or, as now termed 
box-car, $600, and says 20 additional ones have been ordered to supply in- 
creased demand for transportation, and that another passenger engine is needed. 
A new round-house, to accommodate 16 engines, is under way. The road was 
then laid with the plate rail, which was considered too light, and 700 tons of 
iron of the form of an inverted [\, had been ordered to relay that part of the 
road between Augusta and Belair. 

The average number of passengers per day had increased to 92, as against 
66 in 1846, and the whole number carried was 33,354. The number of cotton 
bales transported was 94,897, an increase of 38,076 over the year previous. 
The cost of carriage of a passenger per mile was reported as 2.05 cents and of 
freight if cents per ton per mile. The rate on produce for the full length of 
the line, 171 miles, was from 16 to 25 cents per cwt. From this report we 
learn that the Western and Atlantic Railroad was then at Dalton, that the 
Nashville and Chattanooga road had been determined on, and that the Mont- 
gomery road was being extended to tap the Western and Atlantic. 



488 



History of Augusta. 



The treasurer's report for the year ending March 31, 1847, showed receipts 
$409,935.46, and expenses $157,902.36, a net profit on the road of $252,- 
033.10. That the Georgia road was managed with great skill, is shown by a 
comparison with some of the then leading lines in the United States. The 
table showing this is curious and interesting, and is here subjoined as affording 
a view of railroading some forty years ago. 



Railroad. 



(Georgia 

South Carolina 

Boston and Lowell 

Boston and Maine 

Boston and Providence. 
Boston and Worcester. . 

Fitchburg . 

Western 

Baltimore and Ohio ... 
Central of Georgia 



Ratio of 

Expenses to 

Gross Receipts 



■38 
•51 

•55 
•51 
•47 
•5' 
.41 

•47 
•48 
.56 



Cost Per Mile 
of Train. 



! 61 

87 
I 05 

65 
85 
96 

58 

72 
64 
67 



Receipts. 



*409,935 46 
589,081 52 
384,102 29 
349.136 56 
360,375 03 
554,712 46 
286,645 36 
878,417 89 
895,315 22 
303.439 96 



Expenses. 



1157,902 36 
302.369 72 
212,233 62 
179.734 83 
169,679 48 
283,876 II 

117,447 34 
412,679 80 
429,100 28 
170,236 90 



The gross receipts of the road for 1847 were made up as follows: Passen- 
gers, $136,559.69; freight, $232,891.24; United States mails, etc., $40,484.- 
53; total, $409,935.46. 

The expenses were: Conducting transportation, $36,933.75; motive power, 
$45,066.08 ; maintenance of way, $57,508.29 ; maintenance of cars, $18,394.- 
24; total, $157,902.36. Some of the items of expenditure were: For con- 
ductors, $4,891.65; engineers and firemen, $10,582.42 ; wood, $12,099.99 ; 
road hands, $19,170. 15 ; overseers, $3,954. 17 ; cross-ties, $16,295.43. During 
the year 1847 the company paid two dividends, one in April of $45,783.99 ; 
one in October of $68,675.99. The capital stock was $2,289,199.92. 

In 1849 the president, Hon. John P. King, the presiding officer of this com- 
pany from its inception, reports that the receipts were $608,130.48, and the 
expenses $282,290.55 ; net profits $325,839.93. The number of bales of cot- 
ton carried was 157,502, an increase of 70,768 over the preceding year. The 
Memphis Branch Railroad, from Kingston to Rome had been completed and 
was in full operation. The Nashville and Chattanooga would be completed 
ere the close of the year, and the State road and the Nashville and Chatta- 
nooga were being vigorously pushed. Appended to his report the president 
gives a very valuable and interesting report by F. C. Arms, superintendent of 
transportation. There were 25 engines, one, the best of them all, he says, 
built at the company's shops in Augusta at a cost of $7,000, 16 in use on the 
road, 4 in shop, ready for use, and 9 under repairs. The " Pennsylvania," the 
oldest engine on the line, is reported on the road in complete order, and is de- 
scribed as a six- wheel engine with two drivers, and credited with a service of 
243,945 miles. There were 14 passenger cars, 3 baggage and mail cars, 10 



Transportation. 



489 



stock cars, 136 box cars, and 79 platform cars. To accommodate increasing 
business 4 new freight engines, 50 box and 25 platform cars had been ordered; 
conductors cost $5,642.49; engineers and firemen, $14,959.75; wood, $14,- 
57373 ; keeping of track, $66,054.99. 

At this time Mr. L. P. Grant was chief engineer. He speaks of the n 
shaped rail having displaced the flat bar rail, but as being itself displaced by a 
rail of the x shape, weighing 58 pounds per lineal yard, to be laid on cross 
ties two feet and three inches apart. He says : " In changing the plan of track 
from that now in use with the flat-bar, no loss will accrue in cross- ties and 
stringers. The former can be turned on their edges and moved sufficiently to 
one side to avoid the gains, and the latter can be cut into cross-tie lengths, 
supplying about the number that will be needed, in addition to those now in 
the track." The total length of bridges is reported as 7,900 feet, but it is said 
that by earth embankments this can be reduced to 3,000 feet. 

For the year 1850 the receipts were $676,966.10, and expenses $291,- 
299.91, leaving a net income of $385,666. 19. The president reports that the 
State Road had opened to Chattanooga in November, 1849, but from the dif- 
ficulty of passing the tunnel had not as yet gotten fairly into operation. The 
Montgomery and West Point line would be completed in a few months and the 
Nashville and Chattanooga and Georgia and East Tennessee roads were making 
satisfactory progress. In June, 1849, the management had reduced the fare 
to three cents per mile, which appeared to work well. Negotiations were in 
progress looking to a branch road to Washington. Mr. Arms, superintendent 
of transportation, reports 65,438 passengers carried, making 179 per day, an 
increase of Ji over the preceding year. Owing to the partial failure of the 
cotton crop, but 133,810 bales had been carried, a falling ofl" of 23,692 bales. 
The rolling stock was 29 locomotives (nineteen on the road and six ready for 
use), 16 passenger cars, 3 baggage and mail cars, 14 stock cars, 165 box cars, 
and 79 flats. A site for a new freight warehouse had been purchased on Camp- 
bell and Walker streets, and the passenger depot needed enlargement. 

The chief engineer's report for this year dwells on the necessity of heavier 
rails and larger locomotives. It states that the work of relaying the track from 
Augusta to Union Point had cost $226,467.66, and that when this work was 
complete the company would have about 1,500 tons of old flat-bar iron for sale, 
the quality of which was superior. Not so much could be said of much of the 
new iron. English manufacturers had thrust an inferior grade of railroad iron 
on the market, and the report advocates the establishment of an American roll- 
ing mill convenient to the railroads of the State. The increase in the weight 
of engines has led to a strengthening of the bridges on the road. The report 
enters at large on the subject of the deterioration of iron rail. It is said that 
this question has not received the attention it requires, and that owing to the 
fact that so many diflbrent makes and weights of rail had been used on the 



490 History of Augusta. 



road, it was extremely difficult to obtain reliable data. The weight of iron on 
the main line is considered to average 68 tons per mile, and on the branches 25 
tons, making the total about 12,700 tons. Of this 3,000 tons had been in use ten 
years ; 4,200 for five years, and 5,500 for a year. The average limit of service 
is put at twelve years, and loss of weight by lamination 15 per cent, on which 
data the value of deterioration is estimated at $33,000 per annum. From this 
year's report it appears that the South Carolina road was then the longest in 
the country, 240 miles, and the Georgia next, with 213 miles. The Central 
had 191, and the Baltimore and Ohio, 179. 

From the reports of 185 I it appears that the State had no equipment of its 
own on the Western and Atlantic road, and that the Georgia road used its own 
rolling stock thereon, much to the detriment of that stock, some fifty miles of 
the State Road being laid with the old plate rail, or flat bar, which was much 
broken and worn. It was then in contemplation to relay this part, as also to 
furnish a sufficiency of cars for the road to do its own local business. As mat- 
ters then stood, connecting roads were obliged to furnish cars for both through 
and local traffic on the State Road. The outfit of the Georgia road this year 
was 35 locomotives, 17 passenger cars, 4 baggage and mail cars, 14 stock cars, 
181 box cars, and 109 flats, and 200 more freight cars had been ordered. 
The company had issued $250,000 bonds to aid in paying its subscription of 
$500,000 to the Nashville and Chattanooga and Atlanta and La Grange roads. 
The former was nearing completion, and 25 miles of the latter were in opera- 
tion. The Montgomery and West Point Road was complete, and the Mem- 
phis and Charleston and East Tennessee and Georgia progressing. The re- 
ceipts were $784,408.64, and expenses $363,523.25, a net income of $420,- 
885.39. ^^ t^^^ ^''"^ ^^^^ various railroad companies of the county had held a 
convention to correct the -abuse of dead-heading, and the Georgia road had 
assented to the resolution adopted by that body that no free tickets should 
be granted except to directors or employees, and that employees should not 
ask or accept free passes on other lines. During this year 91,237 passengers 
were carried and 132,800 bales of cotton. The chilled iron tire was used en 
the driving-wheels of some of the engines and found to give satisfaction, and 
as many as eighty-six freight cars were built at the company's shops. In this 
year, also, the chief engineer recommends the adoption of what he terms the 
" compound rail," that is so laid that the joints on one side of the track did 
not correspond with the joints on the other, as up to that time had been the 
case. He also recommends ballasting. 

In 1852 President King reports receipts, $859,472.45 ; expenses, $438,- 
384.52; net profits, $431,087.93. This year heavy repairs were made. The 
timber beyond Madison having been in use since 1845-46 needed replacing, 
but for the first time in its history the road is reported as being perfectly 
equipped in all respects. The road was all laid in heavy iron and all machin- 



Transportation. 491 



ery and appliances in excellent condition. It is stated tliat since 1849 the fol- 
lowing subscriptions had been made to the stock of other roads, namely: At- 
lanta and LaGrange, $279,700; Nashville and Chattanooga, $210,000; Geor- 
gia and East Tennessee, $10,000. During the year not a single run off or 
other accident had occurred, but the road had suffered some from fires sup- 
posed to be incendiary. 

Mr. F. C. Arms, the general superintendent, reported 111,091 passengers 
carried, and 139,769 bales of cotton ; passengers income, $265,201.27; freight, 
$486,498.41. A disastrous fire had occurred at Camak, supposed to be the work 
of an incendiary, whereby three cars, two loaded with cotton, and the depot had 
been consumed, and four platform and two box cars had been burned near 
Stone Mountain. The rolling stock consisted of 346 cars; passenger, 20; mail, 
5; stock, 32; box, 289; and flats, 181 ; and 40 locomotives. Some of the new 
engines were the "California," "Oregon," "Ohio," "Indiana," "Hercules," 
"Richard," "Peters," "Augusta," "Atlanta," "Union," "Constitution," "Fire 
Eater," "A. J. Miller," and "Howell Cobb." Four locomotives and 214 cars had 
been added during the year, 141 of them built in the company's shop. A j^ rail, 
weighing 59 pounds per yard, in bars 24 feet long had been adopted, to be laid on 
cross ties two feet apart, with a bottom splice four feet long at each joint, riveted 
to the flanges of the rail. This method had been advised by Mr. L. P. Grant, 
the chief engineer, but was subsequently found to have also occurred to some 
other parties who had patented the same. In the report of this year the names 
of the directors are first given; they were Hays Bowdre, B. H. Warren, Jo- 
seph C. Fargo, William D. Conyers, John Cunningham, James W. Davies, 
William M. D'Antignac, John Bones, Thomas N. Hamilton, Elijah E. Jones, 
Antoine Poullain, A. J. Miller, Pleasant Stovall, Paul F. Eve, and Charles 
Dougherty. 

For 1853 the receipts were $1,030,01 1.42; expenses, $559,578.23; net in- 
come, $470,433.19. The dividend was raised from seven to eight per cent. 
The Nashville and Chattanooga, and Atlanta and LaGrange roads were re- 
ported as near completion, and looked forward to as valuable feeders. With 
the South Carolina Railroad the company had made arrangements for the lo- 
cation of a depot in Augusta about 600 yards from its own, the Georgia road 
contributing $30,000 to the expense. Eight new engines had been ordered 
at a cost of $64,000, and passenger depots at Augusta and Atlanta had been 
contracted for, the latter being a union depot with other lines. The Wash- 
ington branch would be complete by August. 

The superintendent reports 117,621 passengers, and 194,742 bales of cot- 
ton carried ; also that the rolling stock consisted of 43 locomotives and 565 
cars. The new plan of laying rails had removed the old evil of clattering 
joints, and had worked admirably in all respects. From the locomotive statis- 
tics it appears there had been a marked increase in the weight of engines from 



492 History of Augusta. 



II to 13 tons to 18, 19, and 20 each. At this period conductors called for 
$11,971.89, engineers and firemen $31,957.32; keeping of the way $150,957.- 
66. Asbury Hull was added to the directors. 

For 1856 the receipts were $1,176,644.21, expenses $587,327.06, net in- 
come $589,317.15. The wheat crop of this year was enormous and taxed the 
capacity of the road to its utmost. In 1854, the heaviest prior year, 429,486 
bushels had been hauled; this year, 1,172,331, nearly three times as much ; 
flour, which had not previously exceeded 30,000 barrels, showed 60,514 car- 
ried, and the heaviest freight ever known of cotton, 205,503 bales, was super- 
added, making a volume of produce which called into incessant service every 
engine and car. The rolling stock was 48 locomotives, 16 passengers, 32 
freight, and 704 cars, and 6 more engines had been ordered. This year the 
directors were John Bones, Samuel Barnett, William M. D'Antignac, John 
Cunningham, Asbury Hull, George T. Jackson, Thomas B, Phinizy, Richard 
Peters, Hays Bowdre, William D. Conyers, James W. Davies, Thomas N. Ham- 
ilton, Elijah E. Jones, Antoine Poullain, and Benjamin H. Warren, with one 
vacancy. 

In 1857 the old wooden way stations were replaced by brick and stone. 
The increased length of engines and tenders necessitated new turnouts. There 
is great complaint of the very inferior quality of railroad iron then manufac- 
tured. The annual wear and tear of rails is estimated at $50,000, and to .show 
that the quality manufactured has deteriorated instead of improved with time, 
the president instances that the last lot put upon the road is in the worst con- 
dition, and that some twenty- five miles which had then been about sixteen 
years in use was the best on the line. The other railroad stocks held by the 
company had begun at last to pay, the Nashville and Chattanooga three per 
cent, and the rest, with the exception of East Tennessee and Georgia, eight 
per cent. Atlanta and LaGrange had paid a bonus of thirty per cent. The 
Memphis and Charleston road had opened, and the Nashville and Northwest- 
ern was well under way. The receipts were $1,314,563.48, expenses $785,- 
188.54, net profits $i;20,374.94. The banking adjunct was at this time pay- 
ing about one-sixth the gross receipts, and making handsome profits. Nine 
new locomotives were bought during the year, making 54 in all ; there were 
706 cars and 40 additional freight cars ordered. George W. Evans was added 
to the directory this year. 

In 1859 the president reports the bonded debt as $373,060, all incurred 
for stock in other roads, and urges its extinction at maturity, and the adoption 
of the policy of a fixed rate of dividend rather than a fluctuating rate, now high, 
now low. A fixed rate of seven per cent, he thinks attainable, all over to 
extinguish the debt and relay the track. The road paid $1,154,621.08 and 
the bank $134,324.20, total $1,288,945.28, expenses $672,747.40, net profits 
$616,197.88. Mr. George Yonge was now superintendent, and pays a high 



Transportation. 493 



tribute to the faithfulness and efficiency of the company's engineers. Ferdi- 
nand Phinizy and Massilon P. Stovall were made directors. 

In i860 President King warns the stockholders that new roads are seri- 
ously threatening their business. The Virginia line and Charleston and Sa- 
vannah road are already competitors, and a line from Griffin I'ia Newnan to 
North Alabama, and an extension from Eatonton to Madison will still further 
affisct the company. As a remedy roads were suggested from Warrenton to 
Macon, from Madison to Barnesville, from Covington to Griffin, from Atlanta 
and Marietta to Jacksonville. There were 56 engines and 634 cars. The fer- 
tilizer traffic began to loom up, 4,529.791 pounds having been hauled, the com- 
putation not being by tons at that date. Edward R. Ware was added to the 
directory. 

In 1 86 1 the pinch of war began to be felt. The road earned $860,460.81, 
the bank $185,209.30, a falling off in the former of $298,727.41, and in 
the latter $66,321.67, a total of $365,049.08, or just $1,000 per day. 
The Milledgeville road, to which the company had subscribed $200,000, 
and paid $124,000, was progressing. The future of the road none could 
foresee. 

In 1862 the president says: " But little produce has been moved, and the 
purchase and consumption of goods for domestic purposes has been small. 
Travel and traffic have been diverted from the usual channels, and regular 
commerce and the trade connected with it have been broken up or greatly de- 
ranged. The business therefore has been derived from unusual, and often un- 
expected sources. The heaviest class of transportation has been in arms, mil- 
itary supplies, and munitions of war. Also heavy groceries from New Orleans, 
the two Carolinas and Virginia have been forced over our road by the block- 
ade of the coast. For travel we have been mainly dependent on the transpor- 
tation of troops, and travel connected with the movements of the army, and 
refugees from an invaded coast have furnished no inconsiderable item." The 
figures of receipts and disbursements being in a depreciated currency cannot 
be justly compared with those of preceding years. Such as they were, receipts 
were $997,612.12; expenses, $566,071.55; net, $431,540.57. To meet the 
depreciation of the currency the superintendent urges an increase of ten per 
cent, in fares, and from ten to twenty in freight. All through rates were abol- 
ished and all transportation charged for at local rates. To meet the antici- 
pated scarcity of railroad supplies purchases of material had been made to the 
amount of $167, 1 8 1 .43. To the Confederate States the bank had loaned $500,- 
000, to the State of Georgia $300,000. The stocks in which the company had 
then invested were Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company, $250,000; 
Rome Railroad Company, $123,150; East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad 
Company, $10,600; Atlanta and West Point Railroad Company, $464,000 ; 
Georgia Western Railroad Company, $2,500; Milledgeville Railroad Company, 



494 History of Augusta. 



$124,000; steamship companies, $40,120; other stock, $500; total, $1,014.- 
870; Confederate State treasury notes in hand, $407,525. 

For 1863 the receipts were $1,555,404.63; expenses, $512,439.54; net 
profits, $1,042,965.09. Two dividends aggregating fourteen per cent, were 
paid. This apparent prosperity was only due to the temporary impulse of the 
war. The reliable business of the country was small. Much of the rolling 
stock had been ordered by the Confederate government on other roads and 
into other States. Moreover the government had taken possession of the roll- 
ing-mill at Atlanta, which the company in conjunction with some others, had 
started a few years prior to the war, and thus deprived it of the opportunity to 
have its old iron re-rolled. In fact a quantity which had been sent there had 
been impressed for military purposes. 

The superintendent reports that, so fir, the supplies laid in in advance have 
been able to keep the road up, but that next year difficulties must be encountered 
from the scarcity of material even at the enhanced prices. He says in partic- 
ular that all of the good pig-iron needed for wheels is being cast into ordnance. 
He recommends an increase of one hundred per cent, in the rates of transpor- 
tation. 

In 1864 the president reports the road as running at a heavy loss, and says: 
" It has made no real profit for the last two years, and is making nothing now. 
The more business it does the more money it loses, and the greatest " favor that 
could be conferred upon it, if public wants permitted, would be the privilege 
of quitting business till the end of the war." To explain this he says that the 
ruined condition of the road and rolling stock from hard usage in govern- 
ment service is such that it would take much more than all reported profits to 
put it in the condition it was in 1861. The low rates paid for government 
transportation, the fact that rates for private business have only been increased 
ninety per cent., and the increase in cost of every element of working and main- 
taining the road to an average of 3,865 per cent, are also adverted to. The 
banking department is reported as having made little since the loan of its 
credits and effects to the government in 1861, and what it has made has been 
required for taxes. The banking charter, the president reminds the stock- 
holders, is to expire in December, 1864, and as the Legislature declines to 
grant a renewal except on onerous conditions, he advises that it be permitted 
to lapse without further effort. The receipts from the road were as follows : 
From Confederate government, $818,689.72; from others, $1,456,665 25; total, 
$2,275,354.97 ; expenses, $1,916,348 ; net, $359,006.97. 

The superintendent, Mr. George Yonge, reports that he cannot keep the 
road up at all on the government exemption from military service of one man 
per mile ; also that it is not possible to increase fare and freight to a figure 
which will be commensurate with the increased price of railway supplies. 
From some tables given by Mr. Yonge may be seen how prices rose. 



Transportation. 



495 



Pig iron 

Railroad iron 

Coal 

Bar iron 

Boiler iron 

Spring- steel 

Cast steel 

Sheet iron 

Ingot copper 

Sheet copper 

Block tin 

Lead 

Zinc 

Spelter solder 

White lead 

Nails 

Railroad spikes 

Tallow 

Leather belting .. .... 

Oil 

Linseed oil 

Varnish 

Files 

Charcoal 

Bacon 

Corn , 

Wood 

Ties 

Lumber 

Negro Hire (with keep) . 

Paper 

Spirits turpentine 

Shoes 



. per ton . . 
.per pound 

. per gallon 

It u 

. per dozen 
.per bushel 
.per pound 
.per bushel 
. per cord . 

. each 

.per 1,000. 
per year. . 
.per ream 
.per gallon 
.per pair. . 



i860. 



25 00 
50 00 
8 00 
04 
07 
07 
20 
06 
25 
25 
25 
05 
03 
25 
08 

05 

03 

10 

20 

I 50 

I 50 

3 00 

7 GO 

08 

ID 

I 00 

I 25 

40 

12 50 

350 GO 

3 50 

25 
I 50 



1863. 



1864. 



$ 225 GG 

150 OG 

20 00 

50 
I 50 

90 

6 00 

I 5G 

75 

I 50 

5 00 

75 

50 

I 50 

50 

I OG 

30 

80 

3 OG 

8 GG 

18 OG 

2G GG 

70 OG 

30 



15 GO 



350 00 

5GG GO 

150 GG 

3 OG 

3 OG 

3 50 

20 GG 

3 00 
3 00 

3 OG 
2G GO 

3 00 

3 
3 

4 
2 
2 
4 

30 GO 
2G GO 
65 00 
50 00 
90 00 

1 00 

4 00 
12 00 
10 00 

2 00 
75 00 

1,400 00 

2G GO 

6 00 



00 
GO 
00 
00 
00 
GO 



The expenses for working the road from April i, 1863, to April i, 1864, were 

as follows : 

Conducting Transportation. 

Wages of conductors, train, hands, meals and labor, for freight. . . . $104,456 59 

Wages of conductors, train hands, passengers and mail 52,228 29 

Wages of conductors, agent's clerks, (including line road) 66,021 33 



Loss and damage 

Stock killed 

Stationery and printing. . 
Repairs depot buildings. 
Overcharges 



46.263 08 

22.264 01 
6,164 80 
8,480 18 
2,140 96 

$308,019 24 



Motive Power. 



Wages engineers and firemen $187,910 50 

Expenses water stations 19.469 33 

Wood for engines 144,424 87 

Repairs of engines 369,192 87 

Oil and tallow for engines and cars 212,827 33 

Machinery 50,020 14 — $< 



53,845 09 



496 History of Augusta. 

Maintenance of Way. 

Men's wages and provisions $297,985 61 

Railing and cross ties 1 10,536 80 

Iron, tools, spikes and castings 33.664 93 

Repairs bridges and culverts 22,204 73 — $464,392 07 

Maintenance of Cars. 
Repairs cars $160,091 60 

$1,916,348 00 

The expenses incurred in working road from April i , 1859, to April i , 1 860, 

were : 

Conducting Transportation. 

Wages of conductors, train hands, meals and labor for 

freight $56,485 34 

Wages of conductors, train hands, passengers and 

mail 23,42 1 06 

Wages of conductors, agents and clerks, (including line 

of road) 37,68461 

Loss and Damages 11, 61 2 84 

Stock killed 5,648 27 

Stationery and printing 5,001 34 

Repairs depot buildings 3.985 17 — $143,838 63 

Motive Power. 

Wages engineers and firemen $58,504 22 

Expenses water stations , 12,552 ']'] 

Wood for engines 37.424 6 1 

Repairs 66,253 9^ 

Oil and tallow for engines 13-749 42— $188,495 °o 

Maintenance of Way. 

Men's wages, provisions, etc $80,803 24 

Railing and cross-ties 34.643 47 

Tools, spikes and castings including deterioration of 

iron 31.403 47 

Repairs bridges and culverts 2,618 10 — $149,468 28 

Maintenance of Cars. 
Repair of cars $59,691 71 

I544.493 62 

In the spring of 1865 the war came to a close, and for the year ending 
April I, 1865, the loss was $389,177.06. The road west of Greensboro had 
been destroyed and was so left by the company, but the Confederate govern- 
ment had placed that part in condition for at least temporary use. No con- 
vention of stockholders was held in 1865, but in 1866 the usual annual con- 
vention was held, and in the reports then presented we find a very clear and 
interesting account of the history and operations of the road during the fiscal 
years 1864 and 1865. 



Transportation. 497 



In the latter part of 1864 all the improvements at Atlanta, and the road, 
depots and bridges, from Atlanta to the Oconee were destroyed, partly by the 
Federal and partly by the Confederate forces. The company did not think it 
to its interest to rebuild that portion until the cessation of hostilities, but the 
Confederate government did so in a superficial and temporary manner. Some 
of the iron used in this work was taken by force from other roads, and at the 
close of the war these demanded restitution of their property. In addition to 
the destruction of eighty miles of track, the depots at Atlanta, Decatur, Lith- 
onia, Conyers, Rutledge, Buckhead, Stone Mountain, Social Circle and Cov- 
ington were burned, and some three hundred cars had been carried off and lost 
on other roads, or destroyed. The lapse of the banking franchise in Decem- 
ber, 1864, had left the company without that once profitable auxiliary, and 
$400,000 of the old banking bills then in circulation were to be paid. The 
negroes belonging to the company, valued at $26,255, were emancipated. 
There were on hand, and worthless. Confederate bonds to the amount of $653,- 
100; in Confederate notes, $339,842.51 ; Georgia war bonds, $150,000 ; Geor- 
gia treasury notes, $195,587.60. On the exchange of old Confederate cur- 
rency for new there had been a loss of $113,617.87 ; an account of $674,- 
245.29 against the confederate government for transportation was valueless, 
and in short the losses all told amounted to $2,732,522.71, of which $500,000 
was in damage done to the road and its outfit, estimated on a gold basis. 
There were left 22 engines in running order and 29 needing repairs, and 378 
cars, many utterly worthless. 

On the cessation of hostilities the Georgia Road transported to their 
homes, free, nearly 100,000 Confederate soldiers, paroled, or prisoners of 
war released from Northern prisons. On October i, 1865, Mr. E. W. Cole 
was made superintendent, and his report of operations of the road from 
May 15, 1865, when the accounts began once more to be kept in Federal 
currency, showed that from that period to March 31, 1866, the receipts were 
$1,155,397.92, and the expenses $640,478.95, showing a net profit of $514,- 
918.67. 

This encouraging showing was due to ephemeral causes, however. There 
was an immense amount of traveling just after the war by refugees and others 
returning to their homes ; then all the hoarded cotton of the country was seek- 
ing export, and owing to the destruction of several competing lines, the Geor- 
gia road had a more than normal trade. From passengers there was received 
$362,548.13; freight, $761,974.37, and from the United States government 
for transportation, $30,875.42. The work of restoration was at once begun. 
Some 500 tons of new rails were at once laid, and 271 more tons ordered. 
The machine shop at Atlanta was rebuilt, as also many of the depots. Among 
the locomotives, the " South Carolina," which had been on the road since No- 
vember I, 1845, and the " Oothcalooga," from October 28, 1846, survived all 
63 



498 History of Augusta. 



the many perils of time and war, and in 1866, after twenty and twenty-one 
years service, respectively, were reported as in running order. Both were 
Baldwin engines. 

The board of directors in 1866 was John Bones, James S. Hamilton, Ben- 
jamin H. Warren, George T. Jackson, Richard Peters, Samuel Barnett, John 
Cunningham, James W. Davies, Nathan L. Hutchins, George W. Evans, Will- 
iam D. Conyers, Elijah J. Jones, Antoine Poullain, Massilon P. Stovall, and 
Edward R. Ware. 

By 1867 the company had put in 283,900 new cross-ties, built two new 
bridges of iron, and nine new depots, and increased its cars from the 70 which 
came out of the war to 399, and its engines from 12 to 28, and paid for all out 
of the profits. In addition to this, $756,806 of the old bills had been redeemed. 
Still this left much of war's ravages unrepaired. Of the 700 cars on hand at 
the outbreak of hostilities, but 70 had been left at the close of the war as stated, 
and many of these were worthless. Of the 50 locomotives, but 12 could be 
trusted. The track had run down so as not to be safe even with a schedule of 
10 miles per hour. 

In 1867 work on the Augusta and Macon road, connecting with the Geor- 
gia road at Caniak by the Warrenton branch, was pushed forward vigorously. 
But 55,714 bales of cotton were transported, about one-fourth of the quantity 
hauled in i860. 

By 1868 the war debt of $1,000,000 had been pretty well extinguished. 
The bills had been redeemed until but $129,476.12 was outstanding. In this 
report President King dwells upon the idea that local business must be the 
main reliance of railroad companies. Despite many drawbacks the planting 
interest had recovered ground, and the cotton freight was 1 12,708 bales, or 
about double that of the preceding year. Two new engines were the first in 
eight years. The cars had been increased to 473, of which 23 were passen- 
ger. Stevens Thomas and Thomas J. Burney were added to the directory 
this year. 

In 1869 the grain freight of the road began to rise into new importance. 
This year 1,059,043 bushels were brought from the West against 487,828 the 
year before. This year an office of discount and deposit was opened with 
agencies at Atlanta and Athens. The net earnings increased to $83,542.60 
over those of 1868, owing to the local business improving. The Macon and 
Augusta Railroad, though unfinished, was about paying its own expenses. 
Between 417 and 418 miles of road had been relaid with new iron. In Septem- 
ber, 1868, Mr. E. W. Cole, superintendent, accepted the office of president of the 
Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, and Mr. S. K. Johnson, assistant superin- 
tendent, acted as superintendent. For the fiscal year 1869 the earnings of the 
Macon and Augusta Railroad were $45,123.52; expenses, $47,282.47. The 
United States tax on dividends was a heavy burden at this period, being 



Transportation, 499 



$16,624 this year. L. M. Hill, D. E. Butler, and Green Moore were added to 
the directory. 

The receipts for 1870 were $1,456,183.85; expenses, $1,027,197.13; net, 
$428,986.72. The passenger receipts this year were unusually heavy, which the 
president attributed to the emigration of a suffering and discontented population 
from the old planting States to the Southwest There were indications, how- 
ever, of a revival of prosperity in Georgia, prominent among which was the 
heavy traffic in guano, as evidencing a large scope of agricultural operations, 
31,609,513 pounds being hauled this year. The president notes that a sort of 
railroad mania had at this era seized upon the public mind, and observes that 
some of the very serious burdens imposed on railroad enterprises seem to have 
been overlooked. Among them he refers to the accumulated taxes, two and 
one half per cent, on passenger gross receipts, five per cent, on cost of equip- 
ment with additional excise and tariff charges, five per cent, on income, and 
State and county taxes superadded. Still in addition, the deadhead abuse, and 
a multiplicity of" damage suits." The United States government tax this year 
was $27,15 1.06. This year miscellaneous freight exceeded the cotton trans- 
portation three to one, and the total receipts of the road were $198,841.33 in 
excess of the most favorable year before the war, namely 1859. This year 
the Green Line was in operation, the principle being that all connecting com- 
panies should provide a set of cars, the property of the combination, and trans- 
port them over their lines, each company receiving a pro-rata of the entire 
freight sale. The completion of the Augusta and Port Royal Railroad is an- 
nounced and considered a great gain to the company. 

The question of substituting steel for iron rails was then agitating the rail- 
road world, and as showing the tenacity of the former it is mentioned that a 
section of rail on the Erie Road which had been in use for twelve months on 
an 8 5 -foot grade, and over which 3,000,000 tons had passed, showed wear of 
only one thirty-second part of an inch. A thousand tons of iron rails were 
this year ordered, but the superintendent recommends that thereafter only steel 
rails be used. By this year all the bridges had been put in order, and a round- 
house built in Augusta at a cost of $40,000. Josiah Sibley was added to the 
directory this year. 

In October, 1873, Mr. John P. King, so long the president, informed the 
directors that bodily affliction disqualified him from giving proper attention to 
the duties of his office, and Mr. James W. Davies, a veteran director, was ap- 
pointed president pro tern. Mr. King, while acknowledging the compliment 
conveyed in still retaining him in the presidency, declared it was necessary his 
wishes for retirement should be respected, and a new presiding officer elected. 
In this year the net profits of the road were $526,578.29. There were 52 
locomotives and 791 cars. The guano freight was 39,171,240 pounds; cotton, 
273,293 bales; grain, 1,107,382 bushels. 



500 History of Augusta. 



The year 1875 was a bad year. No dividend was declared, and salaries 
and wages were reduced twelve and a half per cent. The Supreme Court of 
Georgia so construed the tax clause of the charter as to make all the property 
of the company taxable, which at one swoop cut off $82,125.90. As has been 
heretofore remarked, this decision of the State Court was reversed by the Su- 
preme Court of the United States, which held that the taxing power of the 
State was limited to the one-half of one per cent, on net income stipulated in 
the charter. 

The annual reports from which we quote the summary now in hand are 
replete with many sagacious observations on the railroad business, and among 
others in this of 1875 President King lays it down as an axiom that " side lines 
are always troublesome, and short branches are generally a dead weight upon 
the main line." In his long experience, dating from the infancy of railroading, 
Mr. King had gained much valuable knowledge, and his reports are well worth 
careful study in this important field. 

The year 1876 manifested little improvement over 1875. The receipts of 
the road were $1,194,324.07, and the expenses $641,677.93. The heavy ex- 
penditures for repairing the ravages of war began to draw to a close. The su- 
perintendent, Mr. S. K. Johnson, again urges the propriety of steel rails, last- 
ing twenty years over iron, iron lasting only five. In this year an unusual acci- 
dent occurred, namely the explosion of a passenger locomotive. The change 
of engines from wood to coal burners was also mooted. Two had been 
so changed, and shortened the time between Atlanta and Augusta thirty min- 
utes. There were 53 locomotives and 856 cars. The cotton freight was 206,- 
255 bales, a considerable falling off from that of the few preceding years. Of 
guano 57,094,045 pounds were hauled. 

The report for 1877 shows the financial stringency still continuing, but 
that the road was managed with close economy, and that its operating expenses 
were 56^ per cent, of gross earnings, as against 62 per cent, on the Central 
Railroad, 61^ on the Atlanta and West Point, 61 on the Charlotte, Columbia 
and Augusta, and 57^ on the South Carolina. There were 48 locomotives 
and 831 cars. The policy of coal-burning engines was fully approved, and 
thereafter as fast as locomotives were overhauled they were converted into 
coal-burners. The use of steel rails was also permanently determined on. The 
iron rails would not last over five years, and frequently only two, while the 
steel seemed to show no appreciable wear, and the cost of laying was the same. 
The cotton freights, owing to the prevalence of yellow fever in Savannah, 
which forced this product over the Georgia road, was 272,602 bales ; the guano 
freight was 74,415,168 pounds, or some 37,000 tons ; receipts were $1,1 43,- 
128.24; expenses, $643,110.30; net, $500,017.94. This year the Legislature 
empowered the road to issue $1,000,000 of six or seven per cent, bonds to 



Transportation. 501 



take up outstanding bonds and obligations, and authorized it to buy or lease 
the Macon and Augusta and the Port Royal Railroad. 

In 1878 dividends were passed. A combination to control the Port Royal, 
and thus cut the Georgia road off from the sea was discovered, and to secure 
a controlling interest in the stock of that road so as to prevent the success of 
this hostile move, the directors determined to indorse the bonds of the Port 
Royal for $1,000,000. This year the operating expenses rose to 7iyper cent, 
of gross earnings. The policy of inclosing the tract with wire fence was initi- 
ated this year. Cotton receipts were 220,540 bales ; guano, 72,339,587 pounds. 
This year's report is the last made by Hon. John P. King, president of the 
road from its inception in 1838. General E. P. Alexander became his succes- 
sor, with the following board of directors : James W. Davies, James S. Hamil- 
ton, Stevens Thomas, M. P. Stovall, George T. Jackson, L. M, Hill, Josiah 
Sibley, H. D. McDaniel, George Hillyer, John Davison, William M. Reese, 
Charles H. Phinizy, John H. James, Joel A. Billops, N. L. Hutchins, and H. 
H. Hickman. The operating expenses fell to 66 per cent. The reports for 
this year give very full details of the operations of the company, but present 
no special points of general interest. 

In 1880 there are intimations of trouble with the railroad commission 
on the subject of rates, the commission claiming the right to fix rates and 
the company denying the same, relying on the provisions of its charter. 
After lasting some time this controversy was finally decided by the Supreme 
Court of the United States against the road. The earnings this year were 
$1,169,524.14; expenses, $766,448.93. Cotton freights decreased, but 
guano reached 82,817,538, an increase over the year previous year of some 
14,000 tons. 

At the convention for the fiscal year 1880, Colonel Charles H. Phinizy was 
elected president of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company. The re- 
port for this year shows gross receipts, $1,369,964.42 ; expenses, $955,442,- 
51. The haul of cotton and guano was unprecedented, being 295,849 bales, 
and 58,277 tons. About ninety miles of track had been laid with steel rails, 
with rails enough on hand to lay the rest of the main track. There were 49 
locomotives and 938 cars. 

In this year the road was leased to the Central Railroad and Banking Com- 
pany of Georgia at an annual rental of $600,000, the bank continuing its oper- 
ations separately. The road is still conducted under the lease, and it only re- 
mains to add that the railway equipment and management of this venerable 
company are unsurpassed for excellence. 

We here subjoin a statement of gross receipts, expenses, cotton, grain, 
and fertilizer freight of this time-honored company from 1838 to April i, 
1889 : 



502 



History of Augusta. 



Years. 


Miles of Road. 


Receipts. 


Expenses. 


Bales Cotton. 


Bushels Grain. 


Tons Guano. 


1838 


40 


35.753 


19,367 


8.627 






•839 


75 


134.929 


63.362 


25.5'3 






1840 


88 


184,603 


70,246 


47.235 






184I 


105 


152.225 


67,283 


20,878 






1842 


147 


224.255 


97.518 


49,61 1 






•843 


148 


248,026 


109,819 


63.276 






•844 


148 


248.096 


100,573 


70,754 






■845 


155 


271,750 


I 17,212 


77,948 






1846 


'95 


315.342 


136,204 


56,821 


18.223 




1847 


213 


409,935 


157,902 


94.897 


•49.993 




1848 


213 


477.053 


175.553 


86,734 


278.651 




1849 


213 


582,015 


195.785 


157,502 


176.278 




1850 


213 


526,807 


228,282 


138.810 


65.847 




•851 


213 


728.923 


302,437 


132.800 


42.768 




'852 


2J3 


795.811 


355.508 


139.769 


70,706 




•853 


213 


934.124 


477,655 


194,742 


310,696 




"854 


231 


931.767 


588,552 


154,727 


429,486 




1855 


231 


906,694 


600.289 


165,895 


219.899 




1856 


231 


1,068,202 


750,713 


205,503 


1,172,331 




•857 


231 


1,109,681 


720,217 


177.427 


633,706 




1858 


231 


1.036,572 


710.401 


122.707 


1,058.490 




'859 


231 


1. 1 54.624 


610.258 


219,218 


916.291 




i860 


231 


1,159,188 


631.144 


219,774 


353.241 




1861 


231 


860,460 


704.751 


127,663 


209,497 




1862 


231 


859,598 


521.390 


37,219 


273.446 




1863 


231 


1,120,313 


469.836 


12,672 


27.338 




1864 


231 


2,275.354 


1,916.348 








1865 


231 


3.342,017 


3.056,949 








1866 


242 


1. 155-397 


640.478 


107,276 






1867 


242 


1,136,141 


623,073 


55.714 


265,241 




1868 


231 


1,003,723 


511.834 


112,708 


665,662 




1869 


231 


1,104,521 


575.458 


104,372 


1,407.326 




1870 


231 


1,352,029 


748.11 I 


138,567 


643,129 


15.805 


1871 


231 


1,500,098 


832,559 


170,267 


553,069 


9.315 


1872 


231 


1,334.012 


806,235 


162.470 


887,531 


15.773 


'873 


231 


1,623,456 


976,830 


294.300 


1,897,640 


28.860 


1874 


231 


1. 571. 785 


887.451 


273,293 


1,107,382 


19,586 


•875 


231 


1,281,907 


826.098 


219.533 


1.851,733 


20.637 


1876 


231 


1. 194.324 


641,678 


206,255 


1,366.897 


28,547 


■877 


231 


1,143,128 


643,110 


272,602 


1,667,529 


37.708 


1878 


231 


1,103.712 


727.700 


220,540 


1.480,505 


36,170 


1879 


275 


997,718 


659.325 


267,552 


1. 061. 305 


28.109 


1880 


307 


1,169,524 


766.448 


229,336 


1 .040.074 


41.409 


1881 


307 


1,369,964 


955.442 


395.849 


2,434,460 


58.277 


1882 


307 


1,326.052 


977.485 


254,760 


2,638.690 


51,289 


1883 


307 


1. 314.482 


851.453 


293.480 


1.826,167 


54,946 


1884 


307 


1,324.246 


846.701 


260,207 


2.506,796 


67,293 


1885 


307 


1.286,485 


820.240 


269,211 


3.160.022 


74.251 


1886 


307 


1. 322. 818 


861.502 


280,1 13 


2.532.569 


77.123 


1887 


307 


1.367.733 


903,836 


280,363 


3.43'. 148 


76.810 


1888 


307 


1,514.272 


957,645 


252.228 


2.581,826 


95.3'o 


1889 


307 


1.565.954 


1,042,613 


216,933 


3-521.391 


107,463 



The history of the banking operations of this company will be found in the 
chapter on banks and banking of this work. The present status of the road 
may be thus summarized : It embraces 372 miles of track, and the terminal 
points are Augusta, Atlanta, Macon, Athens, Gainesville, Washington, Monroe 



Transportation. 503 



and Warrenton. It has immense machine shops in Augusta, where it works 
from 160 to 175 hands; pays $i 10,000 of wages annually, and turns out yearly 
freight and passenger cars, and repairs its engines, manufacturing often 200 
cars in a year. It has a grain elevator with a capacity of 150,000 bushels of 
wheat and corn. It passes through and into twenty counties of the State, the 
richest and most fertile, taking them as a whole, having an aggregate of $98,- 
838,879 of wealth, arid $37,316,280 of city property. 

The road is run in the most progressive manner. It has its entire main 
line laid with steel rails, and largely ballasted with rock. It runs accommoda- 
tion trains at terminal points, and lightning trains on a fast schedule, of 171 
miles in a little over five hours. Its cars are elegant and comfortable, and its 
yellow trains have become the symbol of traveling safety and luxury. Every- 
thing is kept up to perfection. Whatever science furnishes for railway im- 
provement this model railroad utilizes. And its freedom from accident, due 
to a management of supreme ability, is something remarkable. 

The Central Railroad system is the vastest single instrumentality of Georgia 
advancement. Its splendid scheme of commercial links, its noble ocean steam- 
ers, its massive system of wharves, elevators, presses, depots and structures, its 
immense facilities for the easy and speedy execution of a prodigious business, the 
perfect method and efficiency of its management, and the peculiarly solid char- 
acter of its stocks and securities, make it a wonderful industrial organization. 

The Central Railroad was chartered December 14, 1835. Colonel Cruger 
made the first experimental survey in 1834 at the cost of the city of Savannah. 
In 1835 the Central Railroad and Banking Company was organized, with W. 
W. Gordon, the originator of the scheme, as president. In 1836 it began work, 
and was completed to Macon October 13, 1843, ^ distance of 190 miles, on 
which day a train passed over the whole line to the depot at Macon. The 
first report was made May 20, 1838. L. O. Reynolds was chief engineer of 
construction. In July, 1838, passenger trains began running regularly the 
first 26 miles. The first report of business for August, September, and Octo- 
ber, 1839, shows 2,310 passengers, paying $5,244, and freight, $20,232. In 
1838 the charter of the branch road to Augusta was granted, and Savannah 
subscribed $100,000 to that branch. 

During the year 1842 Mr. W. W. Gordon, the projector and genius of this 
enterprise, died, and Mr. R. R. Cuyler was elected president. Forty years 
later, in 1882, the Central Railroad Company, in grateful recognition of Mr. 
Gordon's great service, erected a beautiful monument to his memory in the 
Court House Square on Bull street in Savannah. 

The ninth report, made March 29, 1844, reports the completion of the road 
at a cost of $2,581 ,723, including rolling stock, depots, etc. This also included 
$68,000 lost by freshet of 1841. The road had 14 engines. The receipts of 
the road the year of completion, 1843, were $227,531 of which $37,329 were 



504 History of Augusta. 



from carrying 10,461 passengers. Among the freight were 47,133 bales of 
cotton. The expenses were $134,341, or 73.8 cents a mile, leaving a profit of 

$93,190- 

At this time a connection with Augusta was mooted. As chartered in 
1833 the company was called "The Central Railroad and Canal Company of 
Georgia," and empowered to construct a canal or railroad from the city of Sa- 
vannah to the city of Macon. In 1835 the charter was amended so as to 
change the name to " The Central Railroad and Banking Company of Geor- 
gia," the canal franchise being taken away and a banking privilege given in its 
stead. The railroad franchise remained as before, namely to construct a rail- 
way between Savannah and Macon. This charter has never been amended so 
as to permit the Central road proper to enter Augusta. This it does by a 
lease of the Augusta and Savannah Railroad Company. The Central road 
was constructed from Savannah to Macon via Millen and it now remains to 
trace the history of the road from Augusta to Millen. 

In 1838 a railroad company named the Augusta and Waynesboro Railroad 
was incorporated to construct and operate a railroad " from the city of Au- 
gusta to Waynesboro, and thence to some suitable and proper point of junc- 
tion with the Central Railroad." The Augusta and Waynesboro Railroad was 
given a perpetual charter and empowered to rent or farm out its franchises to 
any individual or company. In 1847 its charter was so amended as to allow 
it to begin construction of its line of road at any point on the line of the Cen- 
tral in Burke county, and thence proceed to Waynesboro, and thence to Au- 
gusta. In 1850 the charter was again amended so as to authorize it to con- 
tract with the city council of Augusta for a site for a depot in the city of Au- 
gusta and the right of way thereto, and in 1852 the right of way was granted 
as also the land bounded by Calhoun, Washington and Hall streets and now 
known as the Central freight depot. 

In 1852 the Central Railroad and Banking Company was empowered "to 
lease and work for such time and on such terms as may be agreed on by the 
parties interested, the Augusta and Waynesboro Railroad." In 1856 the 
name of the Augusta and Waynesboro was changed to the Augusta and Sa- 
vannah Railroad. In 1862 the Central leased the Augusta and Savannah and 
has since operated it under authority of the above stated act. 

The war put its destructive hand on the Central Railroad. Its income 
was reduced at one stroke $657,385, or over one-third. It carried freight for 
the Confederate government at fifty per cent, under its regular rates, and took 
into its treasury $342,600 of Confederate treasury notes. The falling off was 
in cotton, hides, copper, lumber, fertilizers, and there was an increase in corn, 
lard, bacon, flour and wheat. The steamship companies in which the road in- 
vested wound up operations, and the railroad was notified that the amount of 
$360,935 had been remitted to England to its account 



Transportation. 505 



The Central road patriotically subscribed to various charitable and war funds. 
The transportation of troops ran the passenger receipts in excess of freights, and 
the banking profits were more than doubled. Cotton fell off to almost nothing. 
The road accumulated over a million and a quarter of Confederate and nearly 
three-quarters of a million of Georgia war securities and money. The year 
1863 showed increased passenger earnings, diminished freights and rolling 
stock, and increased accumulation of war securities ; shipments of tobacco, ba- 
con and corn grew. 

The year 1 864 is a blank. From Gordon to Savannah 1 39 miles of the road 
was destroyed by Sherman's army, and for 40 miles width its line was devas- 
tated. The president. Colonel R. R. Cuyler, died. William B. Johnston was 
elected president. The thirtieth report was made December i, 1865, by John 
W. Anderson, acting president, when the road from Macon to Eatonton, 58 
miles; from Augusta to Waynesboro 32 miles ; and from Savannah to No. 6^, 
66^ miles, was opened. The amount of $704,000 of mortgage bonds was 
issued. Colonel William M. Wadley was elected president, and started ener- 
getically upon the rehabilitation of the road, which was in a bad condition. He 
made report March i, 1866, showing 63 miles to be repaired, cars numbering 
539 and scattered, and engines reduced to 44 in number in bad order, with 14 
only fit for use. Railway connection with Augusta had been reopened. On 
the 4th of December, 1866, President Wadley made the thirty-first official re- 
port. Connection with Macon was made June 12, 1866. The total cost of re- 
constructing the road was $1,068,632. 

The year 1867 ^^^ the Central Railroad well re-established. Its capital 
stock was $4,661,800 representing the railroad and its appurtenances, worth 
$4,472,000 and $869,803 of stocks and bonds in other companies. The loss 
by war in bank operations had been $485,055. The expenditure in renewing 
the railroad was $1,357,140. The cotton business grew to 272,427 bales. 

In 1868 the business of the road fell off $212,226. Seeing in the construc- 
tion of rival lines and the loss of through business by competition, injury to his 
road, Mr. Wadley began that far-reaching plan of expansion, which resulted in 
the present massive and profitable railway and steamship scheme of transpor- 
tation. Mr. Wadley projected with a broad generalship, and his successor. 
Captain Raoul, executed with fine ability his predecessor's grand ideas. This 
year of 1868 he invested in the Montgomery and West Point Railroad, the 
Western Railroad from Montgomery to Selma, and the Mobile and Girard Rail- 
road, and a through freight system with the New York steamers was estab- 
lished. 

In 1869 the Central Railroad leased the Southwestern Railroad, and bank 
agencies were established at Macon and Columbus as well as at Albany. 

In 1870 Mr. Wadley bought for the company the Vale Royal Plantation, 
on the canal next to the river, where the splendid wharves of the road now lie. 
64 



5o6 History of Augusta. 



In 1 87 1 Mr. Wadley leased the Macon and Western Railroad, as another 
protective measure in his broad plan of development. He also began branches 
to Blakely and Perry. 

In 1872 Mr. Wadley bought six steamships, paying $600,000 in bonds. 

In 1873, by act of Legislature, the Central and Macon and Western roads 
were consolidated. The road had been capitalized at $5,000,000 the previous 
year, and in 1873 the capital stock had been increased to $7,500,000. An issue 
of $5,000,000 of bonds by the road was authorized by the Legislature for va- 
rious purposes. Besides the road and its appurtenances, valued at $7,500,000, 
the concern owned other property amounting to $4,104,990, consisting of real 
estate, stocks, bonds, steamers, and railroads. The road owed $5,179,000 of 
liability, $3,686,500 on bonds as principal, and $1,492,500 as indorser. 

In 1875 the Western Raih'oad of Alabama was bought by the Central Rail- 
road and Georgia Railroad for $1,643,128 each. 

In 1879 the Central obtained a controlling interest in the Vicksburg and 
Brunswick Railroad Company and the Montgomery and Eufaula Railroad Com- 
pany. 

In 1 88 1 the Central, as has been stated, leased the Georgia road at an an- 
nual rental of $600,000, the lease running ninety-nine years. On the lOth day 
of August, 1882, the genius of this magnificent Central system. Colonel Will- 
iam M. Wadley, died at Saratoga, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, and in his 
seventeenth year as president of the company. General E. P. Alexander was 
elected president. His report summarizes the condition of the road : Mileages, 
1,150 miles, main system, estimating steamship company at 250 miles. Con- 
necting system, 458 miles; total, 1,608 miles; capitalized at $25,995,150 and 
stocked at $7,500,000, making an aggregate of $33,495,150, or $20,830 per 
mile. The 458 miles connecting system were the Central's proportion in 857 
miles of railway, making the whole mileage it influenced 2,009. The policy of 
Mr. Wadley has been steadily pursued until the Central Railroad and Banking 
Company now dominates the railway system of Georgia. 

The Augusta, Gibson and Sandersville Railroad Company extends from 
Augusta to Sandersville via Gibson, in Glasscock county. It traverses Rich- 
mond, Glasscock, Burke, and Washington counties and lays open some of the 
finest agricultural lands in the State. The aggregate wealth of the counties 
traversed is $36,500,000; the farm lands are worth $5,400,000, and the crops 
$4,350,000. The cotton yield is about 50,000 bales yearly. The road is 
seventy-five miles long, and is a narrow guage. It is only a question of time 
when it will be prolonged in an air line to Thomasville, opening up the im- 
mense timber and naval store resources of southern Georgia. 

The Augusta and Knoxville Railroad Company owed its origin to a desire 
for direct communication between Augusta and Knoxville. It was completed 
as far as Spartanburg, South Carolina, and then passed into the hands of the 




€'i,/i„/Ei^m/iiu' 



Transportation. 507 

Central system by a lease to the Port Royal and Augusta Railway for ninety- 
nine years. From Greenwood it was extended to Greenville and is now known 
as the Port Royal and Western Carolina. From McCormick's to Anderson 
extends a branch known as the Savannah Valley road. The Augusta and 
Knoxville was opened in 1882. 

By an act of 1864 the Legislature of Georgia incorporated the Columbia and 
Hamburg Railroad Company as the Columbia and Augusta Railroad, and em- 
powered it to enter the city of Augusta. In 1869 another act authorized the 
consolidation of the Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad and Columbia and 
Augusta Railroad Companies as the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Rail- 
road. This road extends from Augusta via Columbia, to Charlotte, a distance 
of 191 miles. It has been absorbed by, and is now a part of the Clyde syndi- 
cate, or Piedmont Air Line system. A brief account of this system will be of 
interest. 

One of the first great enterprises in the country to strike down into South- 
ern fields for fresh business domain was the Richmond and Danville Railroad. 
Years ago this line was well known as an excellent passenger route, then bid- 
ding for the travel to the North and East from this section over the " Central 
Short Line." It was a most popular way to the North, and in open competi- 
tion distanced all competitors in Augusta. As time progressed the command- 
ing importance of this railroad was recognized by a syndicate of Eastern cap- 
italists, who bought liberally of its capital stock and identified it with the pow- 
erful Pennsylvania Central Railroad, in which they were also interested. Such 
a combination threw a superb trunk route from the Virginia boundary line, 
through Richmond, Washington, Baltimore and New York, whose influence 
was irresistable and whose enterprise was insatiable. They controlled all the 
rich section of the Virginia Valley, and that fair country— onced evastated by 
civil war — began to build up and blossom under the inspiration of railroad in- 
dustry. All formidable rivalry was retired, for the principal routes were closed 
up and all branches and connections of any possible value or importance were 
absorbed into a compact system. Nor did this movement stop at Danville. 
The North Carolina Railroad, extending from Danville to Charlotte, was soon 
controlled, when a giant stride into Augusta over the Charlotte, Columbia and 
Augusta Railroad, which they also secured, was not a difficult matter. Prac- 
tically owning the line then from Charlotte to Augusta, this spreading system 
turned their attention down the Piedmont belt of the Carolinas and Georgia, 
and finally effected a lease of the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad, a 
route of 270 miles in length. What a system to contemplate. The terminus in 
New York ; the main line solid and unbroken ; perforating the South Atlantic 
States; the mountains of the AUeghanies and Blue Ridge, rimmed with stone 
and steel — one foot of a great angle planted in Atlanta and one in Augusta, 
Ga. Compared to the seven leagued tactics of modern railroads, how feeble 



5o8 History of Augusta. 

seem the engineering of Caesar in Gaul, or the forced marches of Napoleon into 
Italy. Such a system as the Richmond and Danville, or the Clyde Syndicate, 
as it is commonly called, cannot easily be conceived. Spanning the richest 
section of the American Union, it stretches from the gray coasts of Jersey to 
the flowing Savannah — 

'' Whose head in wintry grandeur towers, 

And whitens with eternal sleet. 
While summer, in a vale of flowers, 
Is sleeping rosy at its feet." 

Once in control of these main lines the small roads and branches were rap- 
idly assimilated. Convinced that this great corporation, was potent for the 
development of the South, and also that its means and facilities for operating 
roads and building unfinished lines were unparalleled, the people of Georgia 
and Carolina, in many sections, surrendered their stock in such enterprises upon 
guarantees from this company. 

This system then, is composed of the following roads: The Richmond and 
Danville Railroad proper, 141 miles; the North Carolina Division to Ciiarlotte, 
141 miles; the Goldsboro Branch from Greensboro, N. C, 130 miles; the Salem 
Branch, from Greensboro, 28 miles ; the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta Rail- 
road, 191 miles; the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Railroad, 269 miles; the 
Elberton, Ga., Air Line Railroad, from Toccoa City to Elberton, 5 i miles ; the 
Hartwell, Ga., Railroad, connecting with the Elberton Air Line at Bowersville, 
10 miles; the Lawrenceville Georgia branch, from Suwanee on the A. and C. A. 
L. branch, 10 miles; the Northeastern Railroad of Georgia, from Lula to Athens, 
40 miles; the Columbia and Greenville, S. C, Railroad, 143 miles; the Abbeville, 
S. C. Branch, from Hodges, on the Columbia and Greenville Railroad, 12 miles; 
the Laurens, S. C. Railroad, from Newberry, S. C, on the Columbia and Green- 
ville Railroad to Laurens, S. C, 30 miles ; the Spartanburg, Union and Col- 
umbia Railroad, 69 miles ; the Blue Ridge Railroad, from Belton, S. C, to Wal- 
halla, S. C, 42 miles. Besides the actual Southern lines of lease given above, 
and which aggregate 1,287 m'les, south of Richmond, the Richmond and Dan- 
ville Railroad management operate a number of roads in the well-known "At- 
lantic Coast Line System," under the name of " The Associated Railways of 
Virginia and the Carolinas." Among these maybe noted the Wilmington and 
Weldon, and Wilmington, Columbia und Augusta Railroads ; the Northeast- 
ern Railroad of South Carolina ; the Cheraw and Darlington, and Cheraw and 
Salisbury Railroads ; the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad ; the Petersburg 
Railroad, and Virginia Midland. This system has opened a vast territory to 
Augusta. 

The Augusta and Port Royal Railroad is 1 12 miles long, and connects Au- 
gusta with the magnificent harbor of Port Royal. It was chartered in 1856 
and opened in 1873. The importance of this line to the Georgia Railroad was 



Transportation. 509 



not at first seen. In 1872 the president reported that ever since the charter- 
ing of the Port Royal frequent applications had been made to the Georgia road 
for material aid to that enterprise, but upon a full consideration of the subject 
the board of directors had come to the conclusion not to identify the Port 
Royal with the Georgia. The reasons were, first, lack of surplus money to in- 
vest in other enterprises; secondly that it would be an act of injustice to other 
roads terminating in Augusta, and lastly, and the most weighty reason of all, 
that the board desired to avoid any appearance of hostility to the interests of 
Charleston and Savannah or the railroads connecting those cities. 

Early in 1872, however, reports reached the directory that an unfriendly 
combination was engaged in purchasing a controlling interest in the South 
Carolina Railroad with a view of restricting the eastern connections of the 
Georgia road to other points. At first the directory was incredulous, but in- 
vestigation disclosed the truth of the rumor, and yielding to the force of cir- 
cumstances it accepted a proposition which had been previously declined, 
namely to indorse the first mortgage bonds of the Port Royal for $1,000,000, 
and secure a controlling interest in its stock. In 1877 the Georgia road was 
empowered to lease or buy the Port Royal, and in 1878 it was reported that 
the indorsed bonds of the latter had been practically all paid. In the same 
year on June 6, the Port Royal road was brought to sale and was bought in by 
the Union Trust Company, of New York, trustee for the benefit of all bond- 
holders. On June 22d a meeting of the bondholders was held in New York, 
and a reorganization of the company effected under the name of the Port Royal 
and Augusta Railway Company. The new corporation was to create a new 
stock of $750,000, and to issue $1,750,000 of bonds, so as to make the aggre- 
gate amount of stock and bonds $2,500,000, or an amount equal to the entire 
bonded indebtedness of the old company The stock was to be pro- rated 
among the holders of the old bonds in exchange for thirty per cent, of the 
principal thereof. The bonds were to re twenty-year six per cents, secured 
by mortgage, and to be of two classes, one of $250,000, to be called the Port 
Royal and Augusta Railway Company's first mortgage sinking fund bonds, 
and to constitute a preferred lien upon the property of the new company. 
The proceeds of this class of bonds were to be used to defray the expenses of 
foreclosure, etc., in discharging such liens as might be adjudged liens prior to 
the mortgage, and in providing new outfit. These bonds were redeemable in 
five years at not exceeding 105. The second class of bonds was to be $1,500,- 
000 in amount, to be called the Port Royal and Augusta Railway Company's 
general first mortgage bonds, and were to be a lien upon the property second 
to the first class. The bonds were to be distributed pro rata among the origi- 
nal bond holders in exchange for seventy per cent, of the old bonds and all 
accrued interest thereon. A sinking fund of $10,000 per year was provided 
for. Under this arrangement the Georgia road received $150,000 of stock, and 



5IO History of Augusta. 



$300,000 of the second class of bonds. By the terms of the agreement the 
holders of the new bonds were entitled to cast one vote for each $ioo in bonds. 
In a litigation growing out of these bonds in 1886 it appeared that the Central 
Railroad was owner of a majority of these bonds, and consequently controlled 
the Port Royal and Augusta, and that the Port Royal and Augusta had leased 
the Augusta and Knoxville, thereby securing control of that road also to the 
Central system. 

The Augusta and Summerville Railroad Company, or the Street Railroad 
of Augusta, is not to be forgotten. This company was chartered on March 20, 
1866, with a capital of $100,000, increasable to $200,000, and was empowered 
to lay a horse railroad from the lower market-house in Augusta, or such other 
point as the directors might determine on, to the United States arsenal in the 
village of Summerville, or to any other point three miles from the city limits. 
It was further authorized to convey passengers or freight at reasonable rates, 
subject to the approval of the city council. 

By act of December 28, 1866, this charter was amended so as to allow the 
company to run dummy cars or engines on that portion of its track outside the 
corporate limits, and on such streets in the city as the cit}' council might allow. 
The same act exempted the capital stock and earnings of the road from all 
State or county taxation during the continuance of its charter, and provided 
that the taxes on its real and personal property should never exceed the rate 
imposed on the property of individuals. 

On September 24, 1866, the city council of Augusta and the Augusta and 
Summerville Railroad Company entered into a contract whereby the city 
granted the company, for the term of its charter, the exclusive right of way 
over all the streets of the city except Monument street, and empowered it to 
construct its main line on Broad street with such branches as it might sec fit, 
and to operate the branches witii horse-power, with the option of using dummy 
engines on the main track. The right of way over all vehicles, except the 
city's fire apparatus, was given the company's cars. The track was to be of 
uniform guage with the other railroads of Georgia, and the rates were not to 
exceed fifteen cents per passenger in the city limits and seven cents per hun- 
dred weight on freight. The capital stock, real estate, and personal property 
of the company were exempted from municipal taxation during the term of its 
charter. No tax on earnings was to be exacted until the company paid a seven 
per cent, dividend and then not to exceed two per cent, on the excess. 

This contract embodied the terms of an ordinance of the city council of 
September 7, 1866. On January 19, 1867, another ordinance was adopted 
which authorized the South Carolina Railroad Company to connect its tracks 
with that of the Augusta and Summerville, and abrogated that part of the con- 
tract of August 10, 1852, between the city council and the South Carolina 
road which prohibited the latter from connecting its track with any other in 
the city. 



Transportation. ^ 1 1 



By another ordinance adopted November 9, 1867, the Augusta and Sum- 
merville was empowered to use locomotive power for the transportation of pas- 
sengers, baggage, and freight during the term of their charter, along Walker 
street from the Georgia Railroad passenger depot to Washington street; along 
Washington from South Boundary to Reynolds street, along Reynolds to Kol- 
lock, along Kollock to the Georgia Railroad track, along Mcintosh street, be- 
tween Fenwickand Walker, and along their track crossing Fenwick near Wash- 
ington, connecting said passenger depot with the depot of Augusta and Savan- 
nah Railroad. The speed of engines was not to exceed five miles per hour, and 
all freight for the city government was to be transported free of charge. 

By ordinance of March 13, 1868, the Augusta and Summerville was auth- 
orized to contract with the South Carolina Railroad Company for the use of its 
tracks from Reynolds street to the Georgia Railroad depot. 

By act of October 26, 1870, the Legislature ratified and confirmed the 
above mentioned contract of September 24, 1866, and ordinances of Septem- 
ber 7, 1866, January 19, 1867, and March 13, 1868, and empowered the city 
council to grant the company the right to use steam power on any other street 
in the city besides those named in the ordinances at its discretion. 

It will be thus seen that the Augusta and Summerville Railroad Company 
was to fulfill two functions, first to operate a horse railroad in the city and to 
the village of Summerville, and secondly to be the connecting line between the 
various railroads entering the city. In pursuance of this latter function the 
company contracted on March 2, 1868, with the Central Railroad; on March 
16, 1868, with the South Carolina Railroad ; on July 5, 1869, with the Char- 
lotte, Columbia and Augusta Railroad, and on June 4, 1873, with the Georgia 
road. In these contracts the following rates were established for services ren- 
dered by the Augusta and Summerville : Ten cents for each passenger, fifteen 
cents for each bale of cotton, and three cents per hundred weight on all other 
freight. By subsequent relinquishments the Augusta and Summerville brought 
its charges down to one and one-half cents per hundred weight on through 
freight, and the same charge on local freight transported from the depot of the 
company receiving it to any other depot, or warehouse, foundry, etc. The 
passenger tariff" and all other rates were abandoned. In 1874 an effort was 
made in the Legislature to abrogate or modify the charter and franchises of 
this company, but failed. The charter expires in 1896. This road is one of 
the best in the county as regards celerjty and regularity of trips, and is unsur- 
passed for the excellent condition of the animals employed. 

Some of the railway enterprises to reach Augusta in contemplation or un- 
der way may be briefly mentioned. The Carolina, Knojfville and Western is 
intended to connect Augusta and Knoxville by a line starting from Augusta 
midway between the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta, and the Port Royal 
and Western Carolina, and thence in almost an air line to Knoxville. That 
city has voted $100,000 to the scheme,. and Greenville has also subscribed. 



512 History of Augusta. 

The Augusta and Chattanooga Air Line is contemplated to run, 7>ia Gaines- 
ville from Augusta to Chattanooga. This will open up the mineral regions of 
Georgia to those cities and shorten Augusta's western connections about one 
hundred miles. Chattanooga has subscribed $I00,000, and many miles have 
been graded. 

Another projected route is the Augusta, Thomasville and Gulf, a line of 
some three hundred miles in length, intended to give Augusta a direct commu- 
nication with the Gulf, and open up rich portions of Florida and Georgia. 

A continuation of the Augusta, Gibson and Sanderville from the latter 
point to Thomasville is also in contemplation, with a prolongation to St. 
Thomas' bay in the Gulf 

The Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago route is intended to form a direct 
communication between those points, striking Black's, in South Carolina, 
whence a branch is to reach Augusta. This line will be 650 miles in length. 
Still another project is the Augusta, Elberton and Chicago. 

A direct e.xtension of the Augusta and Port Royal Railroad, northwest 
would carry us to Elberton, connecting with the Elberton and Toccoa Rail- 
road already built. The same line continued from Toccoa to Knoxville, and 
joining the road from Knoxville to Cincinnati, would give us an air line rail- 
way to Cincinnati from Port Royal, 125 miles nearer than at present. 

From Augusta to Elberton is 75 miles, from Elberton to Toccoa is 51 
miles, and from Toccoa to Maysville, this side of Knoxville, and connected 
with that city, is 130 miles, making a total of 256 miles from Augusta to Mays- 
ville, of which 80 miles are built and in operation. 

The Augusta, Elberton and Chicago line of 75 miles has fully 10 miles 
graded, and the whole route surveyed. Work on this road has been tempora- 
rily suspended, but will no doubt be ultimately completed. 



PART II. 



BIOGRAPHICAL. 



ESTES, Hon. CHARLES. There is no safer index to the character of a 
man than his face. Here we have a face in which is clearly written will 
power, force of character, indomitable energy and courage of conviction. 

Hon. Charles Estes was born at Cape Vincent, Jefferson county, N. Y., 
February 2, 1819. The Estes family is of Prussian extract, and the name ap- 
pears prominent among the early settlers of the celebrated Mohawk Valley in 
New York State. Andrew Estes, father of the subject of this sketch, was one 
of the active business men of his day, albeit he died without estate. 

At the time his beloved father was called hence, Charles was in his thir- 
teenth year. Left to his own resources, with such equipment as he had re- 
ceived in the common schools of his native town, he turned to fight for him- 
self the battle of life. With an energy which has characterized every act of a 
most successful and useful life, Charles addressed himself to the first work that 
offered — mastering the trade of watchmaker and jeweler. This soon proved 
too narrpw a field for his active and aggressive spirit, and, next, we find him 
superintending the construction of a section of the Genesee Valley canal. 

From Lockport Mr. Estes went to New York city, where he engaged as 
salesman in the wholesale dry goods house of Doremus, Suydam & Nixon. 
Devotion to every detail of business in his department was a feature in Mr. 
Estes's career in this position. In 1844 he resolved to make Augusta his home. 
Carrying this resolution into effect, Mr. Estes embarked at once in the dry 
goods business as a member of the firm of Dow & Estes. He continued in 
this branch of trade until 1850, when he disposed of his interest in the busi- 
ness, and straightway entered the wholesale grocery trade, in which, with un- 
varying success, he remained till 1866, when he retired from active business. 
Here, as in every department in which he has figured, Mr. Estes strictly ob- 
served one rule: " Never leave till to-morrow that which you can do to-day." 
He was instant in season and out of season, pursuing his work with unfaltering 
assiduity. Had he a note due at bank, on a given day, at or before two 



History of Augusta. 



o'clock, he invariably paid it not later than 12 o'clock M. Upon his with- 
drawal from business pursuits, Mr. Estes was chosen a member of the city 
council, and honored with the chairmanship of the finance committee. 

In 1870 Mr. Estes was elected to the chief magistracy of the city, and was 
annually re-elected until 1876. It was during his occupancy of the mayor's 
chair that the enlargement of the Augusta canal was determined upon. As 
mayor, he was charged with a general supervision of the great work alluded 
to. He looked after the work generally, and after the ways and means espe- 
cially. The knowledge gained while employed as construction master on the 
Genesee Valley canal, stood him admirably in hand at this time. To Mr. 
Estes, more than to any other man, are the citizens of Augusta indebted for 
that which has made their beautiful city the acknowledged " Lowell of the 
South." 

In prosecuting the canal enlargement Mr. Estes encountered the most 
strenuous opposition of many well-meaning citizens — gentlemen who honestly 
apprehended that the " experiment" would result in nothing but a burden of 
debt to the people. Mr.. Estes was imperturbable and irrepressible. He pegged 
away energetically, and he now has the satisfaction of knowing that his fellow- 
citizens regard the canal, as enlarged, the chief pride of Augusta. Instead of 
proving a burden to the taxpayers, the canal (1888) is paying the city an- 
nually, in water rents and in taxes on mills and manufactories, the sum of one 
hundred thousand dollars in addition to the taxes paid by property, which is 
practically a creation of the canal itself 

Mr. Estes has always figured conspicuously as a skilful financier. The 
cost of the great work mentioned is but another tribute to his careful manage- 
ment. Think of a canal, quite nine miles in length, raised from 700 horse- 
power to 14,000 horse-power, when used at thirty-three feet fall, at a total cost 
of $968,000, $751,000 in the face value of city bonds, and $217,000 in cash, 
derived from the sale of certain shares of Macon and Augusta Railroad stock 
owned by the city. The sale of that stock was, as the sequel showed, an ab- 
solute gain to the city. 

Mr. Estes was one of the most earnest and active friends of the enterprise 
known as the Augusta and Knoxville Railroad. He it was who suggested the 
line now threaded by that road, following the bank of the canal and skirting 
the sites of Augusta's great cotton factories. He it was who inaugurated the 
plan by which the company's bonds were floated to the perfect satisfaction of 
all concerned. 

In 1 88 1, at the solicitation of leading citizens, Mr. Estes took the initiative 
in organizing the John P. King Manufacturing Company, with a capital of one 
million dollars. He is, at this writing (1888) president of the company, presi- 
dent of the National Bank of Augusta, and also president of the Augusta Land 
Company, which latter company was organized for the purchase and improve- 



Biographical. 3 



ment of lands in the western portion of the city. All that section is building 
up rapidly. 

It may be said, without exaggeration, that among the many energetic and 
influential citizens of Augusta, not one stands higher or has a more enviable 
record for well-deserved success and for devotion to the welfare and upbuild- 
ing of the city and its varied interests than the Honorable Charles Estes. 



BAKER, ALFRED, was born in Warren county, Ga., and is the son of 
Edwin Baker, who for a number of years represented his county in the 
Legislature as State senator. Young Baker was educated in the common 
schools of Warren county, such as had an existence in the earlier history of 
the State. In October, 1829, he came to Augusta and took a position in the 
large mercantile house of Bridges & Gibson. He afterwards became associ- 
ated with W. P. Rathbone in the wholesale grocery business, under the firm 
name of Rathbone & Baker. They did a large and successful business for 
many years, but finally retired in i860. In the meantime Mr. Baker engaged 
in the manufacture of flour, and was proprietor of the Paragon Mills until they 
were destroyed by fire in 1863. During this period he was also a leading 
director in the Mechanic's Bank. 

In 1870 he organized the National Exchange Bank of Augusta, of which 
he has since been president. This financial institution has a paid up capital 
of $250,000, and is recognized as one of the most substantial and solid bank- 
ing houses in this part of the country. In 1875 he established the Augusta 
Savings Bank for the benefit of small depositors, to encourage saving, of which 
he has also been president since its organization. This is the only savings 
bank in the city, and it has enjoyed a remarkable career of prosperity. Be- 
sides his interest and connection with the corporations named, Mr. Baker is 
a director in the Enterprise Manufacturing Company, and a director and large 
stockholder in the Georgia Chemical Works. 

In all of his business ventures Mr. Baker has achieved well deserved suc- 
cess. He possesses excellent business judgment, is careful and judicious in the 
management of his aflairs, and is prompt and straightforward in all things. 
He enjoys the full confidence of the business community both as to business 
ability and integrity of character. Few of the business men of Augusta have 
been longer in business life, and throughout his long career he has maintained 
an unblemished record. For several years he has been a member of the First 
Presbyterian Church, and in religious and charitable work has been an active 
spirit. 

Mr. Baker was married in 1844 to Miss Sarah E. Thayer, daughter of Joel 
Thayer, of Boston, Mass. They have one child, Lizzie F., wife of Dr. John 
F. Bransford, surgeon in the United States Navy. 



History of Augusta. 



CAMPBELL, HENRY ERASER. No history of Augusta would be com- 
plete that failed to give prominent place to a sketch of the renowned 
physician and surgeon whose name heads this article. Eor many years he has 
been a conspicuous figure in the medical fraternity of Georgia, and a sketch of 
his career cannot fail to be of interest, not only to the members of the profes- 
sion he so worthily adorns, but to the people of his home, where he is honored 
and loved, it will possess a double value. 

Henry Eraser Campbell was born in the city of Savannah, Ga., Eebruary 
ID, 1824. His father, James Colgan Campbell, at the time a merchant in that 
port, was a native of County Antrim, Ireland, and belonged to a family of the 
Presbyterian Scotch-Irish Campbells. Dr. Campbell has adhered to the same 
faith — being an elder in the P^irst Presbyterian Church of Augusta. The father 
died in early manhood, during the infancy of the subject of this sketch. His 
mother, Mary R. (Eve) Campbell, a lady of fine intellectual endowments and 
high culture, was the only daughter of Joseph Eve, a name once familiar as 
connected with the early history of the cotton-gin, and as the inventor of the 
"brush and roller gin," now used, with but slight modification, for the ginning 
of Sea Island, or long-staple cotton. Like many a child of genius, this mater- 
nal ancestor of Dr. Campbell — inventor, poet, philanthropist and doctor — after 
many heroic struggles with adverse fortune, as the world would sum it up, 
" failed of success in life !" His epitaph, written on his death-bed by himself, 
is a simple and touching epitome »f his life. It is copied from the slab over 
his grave, in the "Cottage Grave Yard" near Augusta: 

" Here rests one Fortune never favor'd ; 

He grew no wiser from the past ; 
But e'er with perseverance labor'd 

And still contended to the last ; 

In reservation, he'd a haven, 

With constant hope still kept in view, 
The blest abode— the promised Heaven 

Of all who strive God's will to do !" 

This gentleman was the father of the late Professor Joseph A. Eve, of 
Augusta, and of the late Dr. I^dward A. P"ve, of Georgia. He was the uncle 
of the late distinguished Professor Paul F. Kve, of Nashville, Tenn. 

In intimate association with these near relatives and active laborers in the 
profession, all three of them are claimed by Dr. Campbell as his preceptors 
and trainers in medicine and surgery, in the earlier periods of his life. His 
education and moral culture, with that of his only brother. Dr. Robert Camp- 
bell, were carefully superintended by his mother, generously aided by his 
uncle, the late Robert Campbell, of Augusta. 

Having received a very thorough academic education, supplemented by a 




A 



'"■S- fiobson. Piik J'/ii-la ■ 



(/(U^^i^ i/- ^Cl^-^.^.^'iAZx^^^^ 



Biographical. 5 



classical course under a private tutor, and having begun the study of medicine 
at the age of fifteen, Dr. Campbell entered the Medical College of Georgia 
(now the Medical Department of the University of Georgia), in November, 
1840, and was graduated thence in March, 1842, at the age of eighteen. The 
same year he established himself in the general practice of medicine in Au- 
gusta, where, except during the late war and during the winters of 1866-67 
and 1867-78, he has since remained. 

Though engaged in a consulting practice, in all the branches, over a widely 
extended region of his own and the adjoining States, Dr. Campbell has, for 
many years past, made specialties of surgery and gynecology. Of his more 
notable operations may be here mentioned forty-seven cases of lithotomy, 
forty- five of which were successful. His operation on the male has been inva- 
riably that of Dupuytren. In this special class of operations, the profession is 
indebted to Dr. Campbell for the invention of the grooved tampon en chemise 
— an instrument which vastly lessens the danger of fatal hemorrliage, the 
great source of mortality in adult lithotomy. We find also recorded by him, 
sixteen cases of gangrenous inflammation from gun-shot wounds, arrested by 
ligation of the main trunk. The first of these " curative ligations " (which 
were all, except one, done in rapid succession during the war), was made June 
5, 1862, in the Military Hospitals at Richmond. These ligations, together 
with the cases of urinary calculus, above referred to, will be more fully consid- 
ered in connection with his literary contributions. In gynaecic practice, the 
sliding-hook forceps, for the operation in vesico- vaginal fistula, the soft- rubber 
spring-stem pessary for uterine flexions, the cushioned protean pessary for 
uterine versions, and the pneumatic repositor for the " self- replacement " of 
uterine dislocations, are all well known inventions of Dr. Campbell. 

As a teacher, the labors of Dr. Campbell have been quite varied — he hav- 
ing occupied chairs relating to some five or six different branches of medicine, 
thus accounting, perhaps, in some measure, for the distinct variety marking the 
subjects which have engaged his earnest investigation, as will be shown in the 
discussion of his published contributions. They may be thus briefly summar- 
ized : From the date of his graduation in 1842, to 1854, he was Demonstrator 
and Assistant Demonstrator of Anatomy ; from 185410 1857, he was Professor 
of Comparative, Surgical and Microscopical Anatomy; from 1857 to 1866, he 
was Professor of Anatomy ; and from 1868 to the present time, he has been 
Professor of Operative Surgery and Gynecology, in the Medical Department 
of the University of Georgia. During this period he was clinical lecturer in 
Jackson Street Hospital, the City Hospital, and in the Freedman's Hospital of 
Augusta. In the winter of 1866-67 lie was Professor of Anatomy ; and in 
the winter of 1867-68, Professor of Surgery in the New Orleans School of 
Medicine, and Clinical Lecturer in Charity Hospital. In the winter of 1868- 
69, he was Professor of Operative Surgery in the Medical College of Georgia. 



History of Augusta. 



As a lecturer he is ready, facile and comprehensive — always extemporaneous, 
without even a note either to systematize or to prompt the course of his dis- 
cussion. Attention of the students is fixed more by the interest he himself 
takes in, and gives to the subject, than by any particular grace of manner or 
oratory in the speaker. 

In 1852, in connection with his brother, Dr. Robert Campbell, long and 
intimately associated with him in practice, he established in Augusta, Ga., the 
Jackson Street Hospital, an institution at that time needed for the treatment 
of chronic and surgical cases among the negro population of the Southern 
States. This institution was founded upon the most liberal principles; it had 
fifty beds and an ample hall for clinical lectures. It was provided with every 
comfort — equal to those of the best hospitals for white patients — and while its 
establishment did credit to the benevolence, as well as good judgment of its 
founders, its ample patronage and support well vindicated the kindness and 
humanity of the Southern people, in the care and attention they were willing 
to secure, at liberal cost, for the sick and afflicted among their dependents. 
Jackson Street Hospital continued in active operation until after the war, when 
it was superseded by the establishment of" Freedmen's Hospitals" in every 
community, and which are supported out of the public funds. 

During the Confederate war, immediately after the first battle of Manassas, 
Dr. Campbell repaired to Virginia and attached himself, as a volunteer sur- 
geon to the extensive hospitals for the wounded at Culpeper Court House, 
Virginia. He was commissioned regularly as a surgeon of the Confederate 
Army, September 2, 1861, and immediately^assigned to duty as medical direc- 
tor of, and consulting surgeon of the Georgia Military Hospitals in Richmond, 
Va. At the same time he was a member of the army examining board for 
medical officers. In these two capacities he continued to serve until the end 
of the war. During this service, among the large number of ligations and 
other operations he performed, those for " the radical cure of inflammation " 
were most important. Immediately after the surrender, he accepted a call to 
the chair of Anatomy, in the New Orleans School of Medicine, from which 
chair, in the winter of 1867-68, he was transferred to that of surgery. Dur- 
ing his connection with this college, besides his regular clinical lectures in 
Charity Hospital, he delivered a special course on the Anatomy,. Physiology 
and Pathology of the Nervous System, in that institution. 

On his acceptance of the second call to New Orleans, his colleagues of the 
Augusta faculty, in filling his chair of Anatomy, until then temporarily sup- 
plied, created an eighth chair, to which no duties were assigned. Having to 
resign in New Orleans on account of impaired health, this new chair was of- 
fered Dr. Campbell — operative surgery and gynecology being given as the 
departments of his own selection. In these two kindred branches he has con- 
tinued, after occupying such a variety of positions, to serve his alma mater as 
professor and clinical lecturer, from the winter of 1869 to the present time. 



Biographical. 



Rather perversely determining, at the early age of fifteen, while still far 
short in the completion of his academic course, to begin the study of medicine, 
Dr. Campbell disappointed the generous intention of his friends in regard to a 
thorough college curriculum. He made, however, good progress in the classics 
under an able private tutor, but yet entered the Medical College of Georgia 
to take his first course of lectures at sixteen. Having become prominent as 
an anatomical student, he was at once appointed, on his graduation, two years 
after, as assistant demonstrator ; from this he rose to demonstrator, and finally 
to professor of anatomy in the same college. In the exercise of these several 
functions of teacher and lecturer, but especially in the more difficult and widely 
scanned performances of essayist and journalist, it may be well supposed that 
the youthful doctor had reason to miss the systematic training and stored up 
erudition of the college course he had put aside ; and to regret the impulse 
which had projected him so prematurely into the profession. Laborious pri- 
vate study, a wide scope of systematic reading and unremitting self- culture 
in everything subsidary to the attainment of facility, as well as profundity in 
both speaking and writing, soon accomplished for him, we think, far more than 
any perfunctory attendance at even the best of literary- colleges could have 
done. He acquired knowledge as it was wanted, and the kind he had need 
for — as it were, making for himself the tools he required for his work. 

Dr. Campbell must have begun very early to make contributions by his 
pen to the literature of the profession — certainly as early as 1845. From this 
time, we find frequent papers sent by him to the medical press — his favorite 
medium at that time being the Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, pub- 
lished at Augusta. Of this journal he finally, in conjunction with his brother, 
Dr. Robert Campbell, became the senior editor, five volumes of which are the 
creditable result of their joint labors — fi-om 1857 to 1861. 

Of the literary labors of Dr. Campbell, it is difficult to give any consistent 
or systematic presentation, on account of their variety and of the unkind red 
and diverse nature of the subjects discussed. Few medical writers in this 
country have worked in so wide a field, or presented themselves with a per- 
sonality recognizable in so many distinct departments. As physiologist and 
pathologist, as surgeon, as gynecologist, and finally as sanitarian, we find 
copious contributions from his pen — each interesting, to a certain extent, a 
distinct class of readers, to whom his name and contributions are quite familiar; 
while by the others, he is scarcely recognized as the same man. In order, 
therefore, to give a resume of that which is to remain as the life-work of our 
subject, we must endeavor to condense, under these several distinct heads, 
some of his more important contributions to the literature of the profession. 
Some of these papers involve a historic discussion not long since quite familiar. 

From a very early period of his professional life Dr. Campbell has devoted 
much attention to the study of the nervous system as the controlling influence 



History of Augusta. 



in all normal and pathological action. On May 2d, 1850, he read before the 
Medical Society of Augusta, Ga., an essay on "The Influence of Dentition in 
Producing Disease." The article was published in the Southern Medical and 
Surgical Journal, Vol. VI , June, 1850. This paper was prepared in answer 
to the question then before the society : " Has the Process of Dentition any 
Influence in the Production of the Diarrhea and other Disturbances in the 
System of the Infant, Commonly Attributed to 'Teething,' and in What Man- 
ner is such Influence Exerted?" Always a student and most ardent admirer 
of the great English physiologist, Marshall Hall, and thoroughly imbued with 
his investigations relating to the discovery and establishment of the function of 
reflex motory action, our essayist, in the adoption and explanation of the af- 
firmative side of this question, presented a clear analogy between the excito- 
motory system and the function he was about to propose in explanation of the 
perverted secretory and nutritive action characterizing the disturbances of den- 
tition. 

In this paper Dr. Cam[)bell clearly defined the original doctrine of reflex 
vaso-motor action, referring to experiments and observations — old and new — 
from those of Pourfour du Petit on the dog in 1732, and of Dupuy on the horse; 
to those of John Reid, as well as to the writings of Xavier Bichat and of J. F. 
Lobstein, down to the time of Todd and Bowman ; all showing, most clearly, 
that wherever the processes of nutrition and secretion are effected, it is alone 
by the entire control over, and agency of the ganglionic filaments upon the 
viovenients of the blood-vessels. 

But the object of Dr. Campbell was not so much to establish the instru- 
mentality of the ganglia and filaments of the sympathetic system in the modi- 
fication of vascular movement, and thereby in the control of nutrient and sec- 
retory action, as to demonstrate the, until then, unrecognized reflex relation 
subsisting between the sensory branches of the cerebro-spinal system, and these 
same vaso-motor nerves whose function in controlling the blood-vessels had 
long been conceded. To this modifying and controlling influence of the one 
over the other, he gave the appropriate name, afterwards adopted by Dr. Mar- 
shall Hall, of London, and others, of The Excito Secretory Function of the Ner- 
vous System. 

Three years after the publication of these views, M. Claude Bernard, of 
France, alike distinguished for his profound knowledge of all that pertains to 
the history of discovery in the nervous system, as well as for the ingenuity and 
variety of his own experimental investigations, published in the Gazette Medi- 
cale, volume for 1853, some remarks on "The Reflex Actions of the Nervous 
System," in which he claimed that his observation and presentation of the 
existence of such a reflex relation between the two systems was "a suggestion 
entirely new." 

This claim of M. Bernard's appearing entirt;ly to ignore the investigations 



Biographical. 



of Dr. Campbell on the same subject, published just three years before, was 
fully answered by Dr. Campbell in a brief paper read before the American 
Medical Association at its sixth annual meeting, held in New York, May 3d, 
1853. The title oi this paper, as found in volume VI. of the Transactions of 
American Medical Association, is, ''On the Sympathetic Nerve in Reflex Phe- 
nomena.'" In their reviews of the volume of that year, The American Journal 
of the Medical Sciences, January, 1854, and The New York Journal of Medi- 
cine, March, 1854. both decide that "priority in publication of the views in 
question is fully demonstrated to be with Dr. Campbell." 

The courteous and friendly correspondence on the subject of priority of an- 
nountementin regard to the reflex excito-secretory function between Dr. Mar- 
shall Hall, of London, and the subject of the present sketch will be remem- 
bered by many not old yet in the profession. In the American reprint of The 
London Lancet for March, 1857, will be found Dr. Marshall Hall's announce- 
ment of a system of excito secretory nerves. 

On the reading of this communication from Dr. Hall, Dr. Campbell pre- 
sented to him a full catalogue and resume of his own frequent publications on 
the subject, and in a letter which, for exemplary courtesy, and for profound 
and affectionate respect, has seldom been equalled in any reclamation made by 
one author upon another, for the recognition of his labors in a common field, 
he called attention to the priority of his claim. 

As might well have been expected, it was soon clearly revealed that the 
revered and noble English philosopher and philanthropist had never been cog- 
nizant of the contributions of his American co- laborer in a portion of the splen- 
did field his own genius had had opened to mankind. Without hesitation — 
even while the shadow of death was beginning to darken the path of life be- 
fore him, he made haste to indite, in manly and cordial terms, but with a de- 
cision equally poised and doing justice to the last degree to all, a letter to the 
London Lancet of May 2d, 1857 — Dr. Campbell first, to Claude Bernard sec- 
ond, and last of all to himself Here is his unselfish and impartial adjudication 
of the tripartite claim : 

" It would be unjust to deny that Dr. Campbell has the merit of having first called attention 
to the excito-secretory sub-system in the year 1850, and that he imposed this v^ery designation* 
in 1853. So far Dr. Campbell's claims are undeniable, and I would say, ' palmam qui meruit 
ferat. 

" I arrive at this conckision : the ut^a and the designation of the excito-secretory action 
belong to Dr. Campbell, but his details are limited to pathology and observation. The elab- 
orate experiinentat demonstration of reflex excito-secretory action is the result of the experi- 
mental labors of M. Claude Bernard. And nozu I say, ' steum cuiqtie.' 

" My own claim is of a very different character, and I renounce every other. It consists in 
the VAS\. generalization of the excito-secretory action throughout the system. 

'* There is, perhaps, not a point in the general cutaneous surface, in which tetanus — an ex- 
cito-motor effect — may not originate ; there is scarcely a point in which internal inflammation 
an excito-secretory effect may not be excited. Every point of the animal economy is in sol- 
idarite by reflex excito-secretory action with every other ! b 



lo History of Augusta. 



'• I trust Dr. Campbell will Ije satisfied with my adjudication. Tiiere is in the excito-secretory 
function, as applied to pathology, an ample held of inquiry fur his life's career, and it is indts- 
pitlably his aivn. He first detected it, gave it its designation, and saw its vast importance. 

I am, sir, your obedient servant, 

April, 1857. Marshall Hall 

The above fair and wise adjudication, respectively recognizing the exact 
right of each claimant in the important achievement, must have been most satis- 
factory to Dr. Campbell. During the same year, we find, in the volume of his 
collected essays on the Nervous System, the following dedication: "To Mar- 
shall Hall, M. D., F. R. S., Member of the Institute of France, and author of 
that grand induction of modern physiology. The Principle of Reflex Nervous 
Action, this collection of Essays on the Secretory and Fxcito- Secretory Sys- 
tem is respectfully inscribed, in high admiration of his genius, and in heartfelt 
acknowledgment of his liberality By the Author." 

The printed letter addressed to Dr. Marshall Hall had also been sent to 
several prominent physiologists. With the pamphlet sent to Sir Benjamin 
Brodie, vice-president of the Royal Society, a private note had been added. Sir 
Benjamin's reply being brief and pertinent to the claim of originality in the 
investigation, we here transfer the exact words. 

" 14 Saville Row, May 20th, 1857. 
" My Dear Sir, — I am much gratified by learning that you have found something to interest 
you in my little volume.' The writing it has been the amusement of my leisure hours when at 
my house in the country, where, during the last few years, I have passed several months an- 
nually. 

" I have read your paper on the Excito-Secretory System of Nerves, which certainly fully 
establishes your claim to originality in the investigation. 

" I have had no opportunity of seeing Dr. Marshall Hall since I received your communica- 
tion. I believe he is staying at the seaside and, I am sorry to add that he is laboring under 
very serious disease. I am, dear sir, your faithful servant, B. C. Brodie. 

"Dr. H. F. Campbell, Augusta, Ga., U. S." 

A copy of the collected Essays on the Nervous System were sent through 
the American minister, Hon. F. W. Pickens, to the Imperial Academy of Med- 
icine at St. Petersburg. The following extracts from the letter of Mr. Dou- 
bouvitsky, the president, officially reports the opinion of the academy, and 
their endorsement of Dr. Marshall Hall's adjudication. 

" St. Petersbourg, March 28, 1859. 
" Then, as to this last opus (Dr. Campbell's treatise on the e.xcito-secretory system of 
nerves), the Academy of St. Petersbourg is quite of the opinion of the celebrated physiologist, 
Marshall Hall, as to the discovery of the intimate ' nexus' [relation] between the peripheric 
nerves and the ganglionar system, which connexion explains the frequent occurrence'of secre- 
tory phenomena from external stimuli ; and though \.\\t facts designated by Dr. Campbell are 
true and long since known, the explication of them, and the very proper designation of the 
united forces from different energies, by 'excito-secretory system ' belongs to Dr. Campbell as 
a most useful and honorable discovery." 

' Psychological Inquiries as to the Mental Faculties. London, 1856. 



Biographical. 1 1 



This formally expressed contemporaneous opinion of the Imperial Academy 
of St. Petersburg, one of the oldest and most authoritative scientific bodies in 
Europe was the strongest kind of endorsement, and to the medical world was 
convincing proof of the validity of Dr. Campbell's claim. 

We have dwelt at some length upon the records relating to these two pa- 
pers of Dr. Campbell, as upon this clear presentation must rest hereafter, to a 
considerable extent, the permanent recognition of his claim as the first promul- 
gator of knowledge in regard to a most important function of the nervous sys- 
tem, never before recognized clearly, and only foreshadowed in the vague doc- 
trines of sympathetic action. 

Besides the three papers heretofore discussed, Dr. Campbell has written 
several other communications upon the reflex excito-secretory function. At 
the tenth annual meeting of the American Medical Association, held at Nash- 
ville, May, 1857, he obtained the prize offered by the association — the title of 
this paper being " The Excito-Secretory System of Nerves: Its Relations to 
Physiology and Pathology." ( See Transactions, Vo\. X., 1857). Among other 
papers on this same subject are " Classification of Febrile Diseases by the Ner- 
vous System." Transactio7is American Medical Association, Vol. X., 1857). 
"Remarks on Meckel's Ganglion — Its Influence on the Circulation of the Eye- 
ball." {Southern Medical Surgical Journal, Y&hxvidixy, 1858). The Nervous 
System in Febrile Diseases, and the Classification of Fevers by the Nervous Sys- 
tem." {Transactions American Medical Association, Vol. XL, May, 1858). 

In this last discussion of the nervous system, as it plays its role in febrile 
affections, will be found a wider application of the excito-secretory or reflex 
vaso- motor function, than has ever before or since been made, either by our 
author or by any other writer. A reprint of this paper was also sent to the 
Imperial Academy of Medicine ; and the careful review given it by that body 
will be found in the following official letter of the president to Hon. Mr. Pick- 
ens, the American minister. It appears that this paper secured to Dr. Camp- 
bell his corresponding membership : 

" St. Petersburg, March 17, i860. 

" Mr. Doubouvitzky, President of the Imperial Academy of Medicine at St. Petersbourgh, 
has the honor to present his best respects to Mr. Pickens, minister of the United States, and 
entreats him to express to the Professor, Dr. Campbell, in his own name as well as from the 
members of the Imperial Academy, the best thanks for his interesting treatise or paper on the 
' Nervous System in Febrile Diseases ;' which proving the high controlling influence of the 
nervous system overall the organic processes or acfs of human organism, not only serves as a 
proper basis for a new classification of febrile diseases, but also being a contemporaneous doc- 
trine of Neuropathology, counteracts in a proper way, the too material tendency which 
threatens to prevade the study of medicine. Though it cannot be totally denied that some 
processes of nutrition are completed with a certain degree of self-government, in the system of 
organic cells, which, since Schleiden and Swan, have acquired a more important signification in 
the physiological and pathological changes of human tissues. Nevertheless, the Academy 
thinks that the most rational analysis of the influence of the excito-secretory functions on nu- 
trition, secretion, thermal and chemical changes, and the different alterations of the blood — is 



12 History of Augusta. 



worthy of her full approbation and of every encouragement," and adds. "Dr. Campl)ell has 
been elected as a corresponding member of the Imperial Academy of Medicine, and we are 
waiting for the approbation of the Minister." 

His more recent publication on the subject of the excito-secretory action, as 
apphed to pathology, is referred to in connection with one of his surgical es- 
says. Part n. of this paper is published in Volume XXX of the Transactioiis of 
the American Medical Association, 1879, " Etiology and Pathology of Urinary 
Calculus." This part comprehends the " neuro dynamic origin of calculus" — 
"Morbid Excito-Secretory Action, the True Origin of the Calculous Diathesis." 
" The Relations of the First and Second Periods of Dentition to the Origina- 
tion of Calculus." In this paper he proves by statistical research that by far 
the largest proportion of the subjects of vesical calculus are infants having uric 
acid nuclei, and in a series of seven propositions he indicates the neiiro-dyna- 
mic origin of calculus. 

In addition to the above eight papers in one of the earlier volumes of the 
American Trajtsactions, May, 1853, and also in the collected essays on the 
nervous system, ^ is found an elaborate essay of over sixty pages, entitled "An 
Inquiry into the Nature of Typhoidal Fevers, Illustrating the Ganglionic Path- 
ology of all Continued Fevers," which title sufficiently signifies the subject 
matter of the discussion. 

By the foregoing revievi^ of Dr. Campbell's contributions it will be seen that 
in a period of about forty years, whatever else may have been his pursuits, or 
in whatever other field of labor he may have been engaged, the ganglionic or 
vaso-motor system, and especially its reflex relations, as applied to pathology, 
has never ceased to engage his most earnest and active attention. He has, in- 
deed, made good the prophetic words of the illustrious Marshall Hall, "There 
is in the excito-secretory function, as applied to pathology, an ample field of 
inquiry for his life's career." 

Dr. Campbell, it is said, has been heard to express himself as practicing 
surgery " as a necessity of benevolence and bread," while his study of physi- 
ology has been for " love and happiness." Such an announcement, if seri- 
ously made, would not certainly give any very good augury for either activity 
or success in the practical departments. And yet, for over forty years he has 
been known to labor day and night ; to traverse weary distances, and to fore- 
go comfort and even security of life, in peace and in war, to labor in a field 
which was not his choice. From his earliest youth he has occupied lecture- 
ships and chairs either directly or secondarily connected with the teaching of 
surgery. Not only his time and labor, but his moderate resources, with those 
of his brother and colleague, were early taxed to found an institution, which, 
as we have seen, was principally devoted to surgical practice. What a man 



' The Secretory and Excito-Secretory System of Nerves in Relation to Physiology and 
Pathology. Philadelphia. J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1857. 



Biographical. 13 



may think of his own impulses, or whatever others may saj^ of him, is ever 
evanescent, and passes away with the decadence of .a single generation. As 
the writer has intimated in the outset of the present sketch, a man's life is to 
be looked for hereafter in the written records of his service. There only can it 
be said of him, " he rests from his labors, and his works do follow him." 

Among a considerable number of contributions on surgery and allied sub- 
jects, the three following papers may be mentioned as perhaps the best known: 
"Traumatic Hemorrhage and the Arteries." This paper constitutes chapter 
III. of T/ie Manual of Military Surgery, prepared by the order of the sur- 
geon-general for the use of the Confederate army. It presents a most careful 
and particular consideration of every arterial lesion liable to result from gunshot 
wounds. It gives in terse, but comprehensive language, accurate and available 
directions by which the military surgeon, in the field or hospital, may be guid- 
ed in cutting down upon, and ligating every accessible artery. The first an- 
nouncement of the principle of ligating the main arterial trunk of a limb for the 
radicalcure of inflammation, and for the prevention of gangrene, is made in 
this chapter. Here, also, brief notes are recorded of most of the ligations per- 
formed by him for this object. The chapter on Hemorrhage occupies over 
one hundred and twenty pages of the Manual. "The Ilunterian Ligation of 
Arteries in Destructive Inflammation," a paper published since the war,' con- 
tains a fuller description of the fifteen cases of ligation, with considerations as 
to the applications and rationale of this important measure of treatment. 

Another surgical paper is found in volume XXX. of The Transactions of the 
American Medical Association for 1879 on " Urinary Calculus." This is a re- 
port of some forty seven cases, and is a study of the disease in its surgical, 
therapeutic and hygienic relations, ending as before stated in part II. with an 
investigation of the etiology and pathology of calculus. 

In the Transactions of the American Gynecologlical Society and elsewhere, 
are to be found various contributions by Dr. Campbell to this important branch 
of medicine: " Pneumatic Self-Replacement of the Gravid and Non-Gravid 
Uterus ;" " Calculi found in the Bladder after the Cure of Vesico- Vaginal Fis- 
tula;" "Rectal Alimentation in the Nausea and Inanition of Pregnancy." This 
last paper might be termed more a contribution to physiology than to gynecic 
medicine. By observation and by actual experiment the conclusion is arrived 
at that the physiology of rectal nutrition is to be found in the reversal of nor- 
mal peristaltic action. " Position, Pneumatic Pressure and Mechanical Appli- 
ance in the Uterine Displacements," read at the Medical Association of Geor- 
.gia. Savannah, April, 1875 ; Blood-letting in Puerperal Eclampsia — Patholog- 
ical Therapeutics — The Old and the New," American Journal of Obstetrics, 
vol. IX. August, 1876, " The Widespread Influence of the Cerebro-Spinal Cen- 

' See Southern Journal of t lie Medical Sciences, N. C. August, 1866, also, article " Infla- 
ma.\\ox\," Cooper s Surgical Dictionary. London. 1872. P. 18. 



14 History of Augusta. 

tres over the Ganglionic Plexuses," Virginia Medical Monthly, i88o; "The 
Genu- Pectoral Posture -;— its value in Impeded Reduction and in the Pro- 
longed Nausea and Vomitingof Pregnancy," 1885; "Uterine Febroids and Other 
Pelvic Tumors," 1887; "The Infertility of Woman," 1888, are the titles of 
other papers of merit contributed to medical science by Dr. Campbell. 

The history of the remarkable and widespread epidemic, dengue fever, as 
it prevailed in Augusta, Ga., was prepared by Dr. Campbell ( Sonthern Medi- 
cal and Surgical Journal, 185 ij. In regard to the inland prevalence of yel- 
low fever, he was at an early date firmly convinced of the baleful instrumen- 
tality of railroads in transporting the disease. At the seventh annual meeting 
of the Medical Society of the State of Georgia, held at Macon, April 9th, 1856, 
he was chairman of the committee to investigate the question, as to " the 
means by which the extension of the yellow fever into the interior may be pre- 
vented." In the second annual report of the board of health of the State of 
Georgia will be found a report on " The Railroad Transportation of Disease- 
Germs." At the annual meeting of tlie Medical Association, of Georgia, 
held at Rome, April, 1879, "The Yellow Fever Germ, on Coast and Inland, 
with a consideration of Ship and Railroad Quarantine," was the title of a pa- 
per rtad by Dr. Campbell. " The Yellow Fever Quarantine of the Future," a 
paper advocating strictest quarantine of railroad trains, trunks, clothing, and 
all porous goods, but claiming " free passport and refuge ^or persons — even sub- 
jects of yellow fever — on the acknowledged ground that the disease is not con- 
tagious," was read by him at the meeting of the American Public Health As- 
sociation, held in Nashville November, 1879. 

One of the strongest endorsements of Dr. Campbell's skill as a physician, 
and one he prizes above all others, came from that great surgeon, the evan- 
gelist of healing, the late Dr. J. Marion Sims. In 1883 an invalid in South 
Carolina wrote to Dr. Sims asking if he could not secure better medical attend- 
ance by coming to New York. Dr. Sims in answering him wrote the follow- 
ing letter: 

New York, Novembcri, 1883. 

Afy Dear Sir: — Dr. Henry F. Campbell of Augusta is one of the ablest physicians in this 
country. You need not come to New York, Fhiladeljihia or Baltimore in search ofhealth. If 
Dr. Campbell can't unravel your case and put you on the ri_t;ht road to getting well, you will 
not have much to hope for amongst us here. Hoping that you may soon get well. 

Yours truly. J. Marion Sims. 

Other letters written by distinguished members of the medical profession 
equally strong as the above might be reprinted, were it necessary, to prove 
the high professional standing of Dr. Campbell. 

In noting the literary contributions of Dr. Campbell, more care has been 
given to his earlier records than to those of recent date, and consequently more 
familiar to our readers. As the natural result and well-earned reward of a life 



Biographical. 15 



of assiduous labor and patient toil, for the advancement of science be has met 
with many gratifying recognitions at the hands of his brethren. Some of 
these have been but kind endorsements of his faithfulness, while some of 
the others have been coupled with the imposition of higher responsibility, 
and sometimes with the incentive to, if not the exaction of an increased 
amount of labor. 

He is a member of the American Medical Association, of which he was vice- 
president in 1858 ; honorary member of the American Academy of Medicine, 
and a member of the Medical Association of Georgia, of which he was vice- 
president in 1852, and president in 1871. He was elected a correspondent of 
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia in 1858 ; a corresponding 
member of the Imperial Academy of Medicine of St. Petersburg, Russia, in 
May, i860; a fellow and one of the founders of the American Gynecological 
Society in 1876; a member of the Georgia State Board of Health, elected in 
1875 ; a member of the Abingdon Academy of Medicine, elected in 1879; of the 
Augusta Medical Society, president in 1877; of the American Public Health 
Association, on the Advisory Council in 1879, vice president in 1880, and for- 
eign corresponding member of the Medical Society of Sweden, elected at 
Stockholm, December 13, 1878. 

In 1884 he was elected to the presidency of the American Medical Associ- 
ation, the very highest honor which can be accorded an American physician. 
He worthily and ably filled the duties of this position, and during his term in- 
augurated the bureau or section known as the Medical Jurisprudence Depart- 
ment of the work of the association. 

In the preceding pages we have attempted to give only the more notable 
events and achievements in the life of one of Augusta's oldest and surely most 
prominent physicians — one who has an international as well as national repu- 
tation in the diverse fields of physiology, gynecology, surgery and sanitation. 
Of late years he has withdrawn as far as possible from the general practice of 
medicine, and endeavored to confine his practice to surgery and gynecology. 
In these two fields he has the largest and most extended practice of any phy- 
sician in this section of the country.' His practice is largely a consultation one 
in all the branches, he being frequently called to all sections of Georgia ai.d 
South Carolina. As a physician he is tender and gentle as a woman, inspiring 
the sick and afflicted with kind and cheering words. No physician possesses 
the confidence and love of his patients to a greater degree than he. 

Gifted with smoothness of speech, charming manners replete with per- 
sonal magnetism, in the social sphere he is one of the most entertaining of men. 
A great reader, he keeps fully abreast of the day on all the great movements 
in literature, science and politics, which he is ever ready to ably and originally 
discuss. He is warm-hearted, genial, proverbially good natured, and one of 
whom it may in truth be said: 



i6 History of Augusta. 



" A merrier man, 
Within the limit of becoming mirtli, 
1 never spent an hour's talk withal." 

Dr. Campbell iiuirricd, at the a^e of twenty, two years after his graduation, 
Sarah Bosvvorth, the eldest daughter of Amory Sibley, esq., of Augusta, Ga. 
l^y her e.xalted Christian worth, rare intellectual endowments, and refined taste 
and culture, she is now, and has been through life, his gentle guide, wise coun- 
sellor and best friend. Their only daughter, Mrs Caroline Campbell Doughty, 
and her two children, complete the household, giving additional companion- 
shi[) and solace to the " hours at home." 



CALVIN, Hon. MARTIN V. The Hon. Martin V. Calvin is the son of 
James B. and Elizabeth Calvin, and was born in Augusta, Ga., Septem- 
ber 23, 1842. He had early and liberal educational advantages in the free 
school of Augusta, under Mr. Thomas Snowden, the classical school of Will- 
iam Ernenputch, and was finally prepared for college by Rev. James T. Lin. 
Entering Emory College, at Oxford, Ga., he rose to the grade of senior when 
the civil war broke out, and he left the halls of learning to take up arms in 
defense of the South. He entered the Confederate service in 1861, and served 
throughout the war in the western army. He was dangerously wounded at 
the battle of Franklin, Tenn., in November, 1864, and was ca[)tured at Colum- 
bia, Tenn., after the fall of Nashville. 

Mr. Calvin early showed an aptitude and liking for newspaper work. At 
the age of eighteen, he became a newspaper correspondent, writing to the Au- 
gusta Constitutionalist over the noin dc phime of " I^iuke." During the war, 
while serving as a soldier, he corresponded regularly with the Constitutionalist, 
for a time as " Mignonne " and as "Isaac Allington " ; later with the Chron- 
icle and Sentinel as " Loraine." He used the last novi dc plume for three or 
four years after the war; then he adopted the plan of writing over his own 
signature, but of late years he has most frequently used simply his initials. 

Returning home after the war, Mr. Calvin entered journalistic pursuits and 
was successively editor of the Augusta Gazette, associate news '^^ditor of the 
Constitutionalist, and news editor of the Augusta Chrotiielc. Newspaper 
work was a field in which his natural tastes and ability as a writer found con- 
genial occupation, and the young editor soon arrested public attention by his 
clear and practical ideas upon the new questions which then confronted the 
people of the South. He was among the first to urge the establishment of the 
public school system, and so well recognized were his labors in behalf of edu 
cation that in 1867 he was elected principal of the Augusta Free School, then 
of the Houghton Institute, and a similar position in the Peabody Institute. In 
November, 1872, by [popular vote, he was elected for a term of three years, 
with Hon. George R, Sibley and Mr. James G. Bailie, a member of the county 



Biographical. 17 



board of education from the first ward of Augusta, where he then resided. 
Under this board the present admirable system of pubHc schools was inaugu- 
rated in Richmond county. Mr. Calvin was chosen superintendent, a position 
at the time novel in its duties and of great responsibility. He accepted con- 
ditionally, organized the system, and at the end of three months resigned, thus 
giving up a handsome salary to return to his place on the board, where he re- 
ceived practically no compensation. Mr. Calvin served for three terms, or nine 
years, on the board, and during all this time the public school system had no 
more devoted or helpful friend. 

Since 1871 Mr. Calvin has had charge of the introduction of J. B. Lippin- 
cott Company's works in the South, a most important position, requiring judg- 
ment and executive ability. His long continuance in this position shows his 
value and the esteem in which he is held. He has large discretion, being 
without limit or instructions in the management of the great business intrusted 
to his care. 

It is as a legislator that Mr. Calvin is most widely known. In 1882 he 
was elected as one of the representatives in the General Assembly of Georgia 
from Richmond county; re-elected in 1884 and in 1886, and for a fourth con- 
secutive term in 1888, and is the only member in the present house, serving 
a fourth consecutive term. He was made chairman of the Committee on 
Education upon his entrance to the house, continuing in that position till the 
present session (1888-89), when, upon being unanimously chosen Speaker pro 
tcvi , he went to Speaker Clay and waived all claims he might seem to have 
on the chairmanship of the committee on education, in view of long service, 
and asked if he was to be accorded a chairmanship to be given the most mod- 
est one in the house— one long regarded as a dead letter — the Committee on 
Immigration. 

Mr. Calvin has developed a high order of talent as a legislator, and is justly 
regarded as one of the most useful of our public men. He has rendered par- 
ticularly valuable service to the cause of education, while the general welfare 
of the State in many directions has been promoted by his well directed efforts. 
In the house of 1884-85 Mr. Calvin introduced a resolution suggesting the 
propriety of employing ladies as clerks in the department of enrolled and en- 
grossed bills. He supported the resolution in an earnest speech and it was 
adopted and put into execution with the most satisfactory results. This move- 
ment had in the State at large the effect Mr. Calvin purposed it should have, 
namely, of directing public attention to the necessity and desirability of open- 
ing to women new avenues to honorable living. During the same session Mr. 
Calvin induced the house to order printed daily an abstract of the journal 
which enabled members present or absent quietly to inform themselves as to 
the condition of the work before them. He has been a prominent member of 
the Committee on Agriculture since 1882, and has taken a very active part in 



1 8 History of Augusta, 



the work of that committee in the house. He has been particularly alive to 
the ay;ricultural interests of the State, and few have given the subject more in- 
telligent study. At the fall session of 1888 Mr. Calvin drafted the bill, which, 
becoming a law, gives to tlie farmers of Georgia, through their representatives 
on the board of directors, the privilege of locating and controlling the agricul- 
tural experiment station, which will be supported by government funds under 
the Hatch act. As member of the committees on military affairs and internal 
improvement Mr. Calvin has also rendered valuable aid. He is a practical 
worker; gives earnest, thoughtful study to every subject which comes before 
the house, and always has plain, practical ideas to advance concerning them. 
He is able to clearly and forcibly present his views upon the floor. He does 
not pretend to oratorical effect, but what he does say bristles with facts and is 
to the point. His fellow members regard him as one of the most thoroughly 
equipped workers in the house, and testified their confidence in him by unan- 
imously electing him Speaker pro tern., a distinction and an honor he richly 
merited for his able and conscientious discharge of his duties. While not arro- 
gant in expressing them, Mr. Calvin has, in an eminent degree, " the courage 
of his convictions." He is exceedingly fond of politics, and is a close student 
of everything pertaining to State-craft. Few, if any, men in Georgia, or in 
the country at large, have a more thorough knowledge of public men and pub- 
lic measures than Mr. Calvin is acknowledged to possess. 

Since the close of the war Mr. Calvin has been active in every movement 
which has tended to the upbuilding of Richmond county .or city of Augusta, 
contributing his time without limit and means according to his pecuniary ability 
to all such enterprises. While still on his crutches, suffering from a wound he 
received in fighting for the cause of the South, Mr. Calvin addressed the St. 
James Sunday-school of Augusta upon the subject of raising a monument to 
those who had gone out from the school and died in the defense of the 
South. The movement he inaugurated resulted in the handsome cenotaph 
which now adorns Greene street in front of St. James Church. This was in 
October, 1865, and it is a query whether Mr. Calvin was not the first man in 
tUe South to lift his voice in favor of inaugurating memorials to her dead 
l%eroes. 

To Mr. Calvin belongs the right to claim a full share of the credit which is 
now so freely given the promoters of the New South. He prefers to call it 
"the Old South " — rehabilitated. With an active mind, quick comprehension 
and extensive knowledge, he has ever been fertile in devising means whereby 
the material interest of the community could be advanced. All of the public 
improvements which have been accomplished in Richmond county during the 
last two decades, and more, have been warmly advocated by him with voice 
and pen. The columns of the city press of Augusta within this period bears 
the strongest testimony to this fact. The people have learned to value his 



Biographical. 19 



suggestions on any question of public policy. His numerous contributions to 
the press not only show him to be easy and agreeable in composition, but one 
of the most practical writers in the State. He writes because he has some- 
thing to convey to the people. He never indulges in the flowers of rhetoric, 
but in facts and figures. His mind is practical and utilitarian. Since 1879 
he has been especially interested in farming, and from practical experience 
upon his farm, a few miles from the city, where he has resided since the date 
named, and by careful study he has been enabled to demonstrate better 
methods in the cultivation of the land and the advantages of a diversity of 
crops. Among his more recent efforts to advance the interests of his native 
State was his advocacy of the State Technological School at Atlanta, an insti- 
tution recently put into operation. He -was conspicuous among the supporters 
and promoters of this admirable system of instruction which some of the ablest 
and most practical educators in the country have predicted will be far-reaching 
in its power for good upon the industrial development of the State. 

Mr. Calvin is a man of high character. His private life is above reproach. 
His virtues are not assumed. They are real attributes that go to make up a 
rounded character. While practicing an exemplary life, he is full of toleration 
and charity for the foibles and frailties of others. While always striving to do 
good and to elevate the standard of education and morals, he is never intole- 
rant or discouraged in his labors because of disappointments or partial failures. 
While he may or may not be a believer in the theory of human perfection, he 
so acts toward others as though he believed that human patience should never 
become fatigued in its efforts to improve the educational, moral and material 
condition of his fellow- citizens of every class — without regard to creed, race, 
or condition of life. His mind is stored with practical knowledge and his in- 
dustry never flags in its dissemination. His personal integrity and his exem- 
plary life, combined with his practical talents, render him among the most use- 
ful, progressive and honorable citizens of Georgia. 

Personally, Mr. Calvin is a gentleman of winning addsess, with pleasant, 
intellectual face, and is social and popular. He has been a consistent member 
of the Methodist Church since he was fourteen years of age. He is thoroughly 
domestic and finds his chief delight in his home life, which has been one of 
singular congeniality and happiness. 



JONES, CHARLES COLCOCK, Jr., L.L. D., was born in the city of 
Savannah, Ga., October 28, 1831. His paternal ancestors came from 
England and settled in Charleston, S C, nearly two hundred years ago. 
His great-grandfather, John Jones, was the first of the family to become an 
inhabitant of Georgia. He valiantly espoused the cause of the colonies during 
the Revolutionary War, and while serving as a major in the Continental army 
fell before the British hues during the siege of Savannah, on October 9, 1779. 



20 History of Augusta. 



On this occasion he was acting in the capacity of aid-de-camp to Brigadier- 
General Lachlan Mcintosh. 

Rev. Cliarles C. Jones, D.D., the father of Colonel Jones, a well-known and 
distinguished Presbyterian divine, was for several years pastor of the First Pres- 
byterian Church of Savannah. In 1832 he gave up active pastoral work and 
removed to his plantation in Liberty county, Ga., where he principally devoted 
his energies to the religious instruction of the negroes. He was a man of high 
literary attainment, and a pulpit orator of acknowledged ability. At one time 
he was professor of ecclesiastical history in the seminary at Columbia, S. C, 
and for several years occupied the position of secretary of the Presbyterian 
Board of Domestic Missions at Philadelphia. He was the author of several 
works on the religious instruction of the negro, and of a " History of the 
Church of God." 

The boyhood of Colonel Jones was passed at the paternal homes — Monte 
Video and Maybank plantations — the former being the winter residence, and 
the latter the summer retreat of the family. His early studies were pursued 
under private tutors, superintended by his father. In 1848 he entered the 
South Carolina College at Columbia, where he completed the course of study 
prescribed for the freshman and sophomore years. He then entered the junior 
class at Nassau Hall, in Princeton, N. J., graduating from this institution with 
high honors in June, 1852. 

Determining to pursue the profession of law, he began a course of study to 
that end in the law office of Samuel H. Perkins, esq., of Philadelphia. After 
spending a year in his office, he matriculated at Dane Law School, Harvard 
University, Cambridge, Mass., receiving the degree of L.L. B. in 1855. While 
at Cambridge, besides his regular law course, he attended the lectures of Pro- 
fessor Agassiz, Mr. Longfellow, Professor Lowell, and Dr. Holmes. 

He was admitted to the bar in his native city. Savannah, Ga., on May 24, 
1855, and in due time was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of 
Georgia, the Sixth Circuit Court of the United States, in the District Court of 
the Confederate States, and subsequently in the Supreme Court of the United 
States 

In 1857 he became the junior partner in the law firm of Ward, Owens & 
Jones. While Mr. Ward was absent as United States minister to China, Mr. 
Owens retired, and Hon. Henry R. Jackson, late minister of the United States 
to Austria, was admitted as a partner, the firm continuing as Ward, Jackson 
& Jones until Mr. Jackson was appointed judge of the District Court of the 
Confederate States of America for the District of Georgia. 

Colonel Jones was married November 9, 1858, to Miss Ruth Berrien White- 
head, of Burke county, Ga. He was married the second time to Miss Eva 
Berrien Eve, of Augusta, Ga., both grand nieces of Hon. John McPherson 
Berrien, attorney-general during President Jackson's administration, and af- 
terwards United States senator from Georgia. 



Biographical. 21 



In 1859 Colonel Jones was chosen an alderman of Savannah, and the fol- 
lowing year was elected mayor of that city, a position rarely conferred on one 
so young by a corporation possessing such wealth, population, and commer- 
cial importance. During the term of his mayoralty the war between the States 
began, and to the usual duties incumbent upon him were thus added many 
abnormal questions, demanding for their solution serious consideration and 
prompt decision. Colonel Jones was a Secessionist, and during his term as 
mayor, delivered one of the earliest public addresses upon this subject. 

When actual hostilities began, he declined a re-election as mayor, and 
joined the Chatham artillery — Captain Claghorn — of which Hglit battery he 
was senior first- lieutenant, having been mustered into service July 31, 1861. 
In the fall of 1862 he was promoted to the grade of lieutenant- colonel of Art il- 
lery P. A. C. S. and assigned to duty as chief of artillery for the military dis- 
trict of Georgia His command was subsequently enlarged so as to embrace 
the artillery in the Third District of South Carolina, his headquarters being at 
Savannah. 

Colonel Jones was brought into intimate personal and military relations 
with General Beauregard, Lieutenint General Hardee, Major- Generals Mc- 
Laws, Gilmer, Taliaferro and Patton Anderson, Brigadier-Generals Mercer, 
Lawton, and others. He was particularly attached to the artillery branch of 
the service, and in 1864 declined a commission as brigadier-general of infantry. 
He was chief of artillery during the siege of Savannah, which he has graphically 
described in his work on that subject, and figured prominently in the defense 
of tiiat city. At one time he was in command of the field artillery on James 
Island during the siege of Charleston, and at another time was chief of artil- 
lery on the staff" of Major- General Anderson, in Florida. Upon the fall of 
Savannah he was sun^moned by General Hardee and assumed the position of 
chief of artillery upon his staff", and was included in the surrender of General 
Joseph E. Johnston's army, which occurred in April, 1865. 

In December, 1865, Colonel Jones removed with his family to New York 
City, and resumed the practice of his profession, which he continued with 
success until his return to Georgia in 1877. While in New York he enjoyed 
opportunities for study and literary research which elsewhere he could not 
have so conveniently commanded. Among his literary labors there performed 
were his " Historical Sketch of the Chatham Artillery during the Confederate 
Struggle for Independence," (1867); " Historical Sketch of Tomo chi-chi. Mice 
of the Yamacraws," (1868); " Reminiscences of the Last D.i}'s, Death, and 
Burial of General Henry Lee," (1870) ; " Casimir Pulaski," (1873) ; Antiquities 
of the Southern Indians, Particularly of the Georgia Tribes," (1873); "The 
Siege of Savannah in 1779," (1874); "The Siege of Savannah in December, 
1864 " &c., (1874) ; Sergeant William Jasper," (1876); and a " Roster of Gene- 
ral Officers, Heads of Departments, Senators, Representatives, Military Or- 



22 History of Augusta. 



ganizations, etc., etc., in the Confederate Government During the War Between 
the States," (1876). 

On liis return to Georgia in 1877 Colonel Jones located at " Montrose," in 
Suinmerville, near Augusta, where he still resides, his law office being in the 
city of Augusta. Aside from his professional labors he has manifested con- 
tinued activity in historical research and literary pursuits. Among the pro- 
ducts of his pen are " Life and Services of Commodore Tattnall," (1878); "Dead 
Towns of Georgia," (1880);" De Soto's March through Georgia," (1880); "Mem- 
orial of Jean Pierre Purry," (1880); " The Georgia Historical Society, its Foun- 
ders, Patrons and b^riends," (1881); "The Life and Services of ex Governor 
Charles Jones Jenkins," (1884); " Sepulture of Major-Gencral Nathanael Greene 
and Count Casimir Pulaski," (1885); "The Life, Literary Labors, and Neglected 
Grave of Richard Henry Wilde," (1885); " Biographical Sketch of Major John 
Habersham of Georgia," (1886); "Biography of General Robert Toombs," 
(1886); "The Life and Services of the Honorable Samuel Libert of Georgia," 
(1887); "The English Colonization of Georgia," (1887); " Negro Myths from 
the Georgia Coast," (1888); and more particularly his " History of Georgia," 
(1883); a work of which the historian Bancroft remarked that it was the finest 
State history he had ever read, and that its high qualities entitled its author to 
be called the Ma:aulay of the South. It consists of two volumes illustrated ; 
the first dealing with the aboriginal and colonial periods of Georgia, and the 
second being concerned with the Revolutionary epoch and a narrative of the 
events which culminated in the revolt of the colony and its erection into the 
dignity of an independent commonwealth. This work represents the best 
labors of Colonel Jones in the historical vein, while his " Antiquities of the 
Southern Indians " illustrates the chief fruits of his labors in the field of archre- 
ology. 

Colonel Jones is a forcible and graceful speaker, and his numerous public 
addresses give abundant evidence of a very high order of literary excellence. 
Among his printed public speeches especially deserving mention are his " Ora- 
tion upon the Unveiling and Dedication of the Confederate Monument in Au- 
gusta, Ga.," (1878); his "Funeral Oration Pronounced at the Capitol of Geor- 
gia over the Honorable Alexander H. Stephens," his address entitled " The 
Old South," (1887); and his series of addresses delivered before the Confederate 
Survivors' Association, of which he is president, and which is largely perpetu- 
ated through his endeavors. The latter are for the most part historical in their 
character, and constitute studies of military events connected with Georgia an- 
nals during the war between the States. 

During the past year (1888) in addition to the publications mentioned, 
Colonel Jones has written two memorial histories of the cities of Savannah and 
Augusta during the eighteenth century. He has been twice complimented with 
the degree of L.L.D., and is a member of various literary societies both in this 



Biographical. 23 



country and in Europe. His " Antiquities of the Southern Indians " was the 
work which first brought him prominently before the attention of European 
scholars and introduced him to scientific circles abroad. Another contribution 
to the literature of his State in the department of archaeology is his " Monu- 
mental Remains of Georgia," (Savannah, 1861). Other works in the same field 
are his "Indian Remains in Southern Georgia," (Savannah, 1859); "Ancient 
Tumuli on the Savannah River," (New York, 1868); "Ancient Tumuli in Geor- 
gia," (Worcester, Mass., 1861); and "Aboriginal Structures in Georgia," (Wash- 
ington, 1878). 

In a recent publication by Mr. Alden appeared an extended biographical 
sketch of Cololel Jones, from which we have obtained the facts for the prepar- 
ation of the foregoing sketch ; and in several instances we have used its exact 
language. The following pen picture of Colonel Jones, with a description of 
his manner and method of work and personal characteristics is taken from this 
admirably written article: " The truth is, while he has in no wise neglected his 
profession, or failed in the discharge of duties appurtenant to it, law has never 
been to him a very jealous mistress. For him history, biography, and archae- 
ology have presented enticing attractions, and in that direction has he made 
most of his 'footprints in the sands of time.' Governor Stephens bore testi- 
mony to this fact when he said : ' He has not permitted the calls of his profes- 
sion, however, to absorb all his time and energy. By a methodical economy in 
the arrangement of business, peculiar to himself, he has even under the greatest 
pressure of office duties found leisure to contribute largely to the literature, as 
well as the science of the country, by his pen.' 

" Erect in carriage, six feet high, powerfully built, with broad shoulders, 
surmounted by a massive head covered with a wealth of ringlets sprinkled with 
grey, with genial countenance, handsome features, and a lofty brow overhang- 
ing a pair of penetrating blue eyes. Colonel Jones is at once a man of com- 
manding presence and the soul of courtliness and grace. Eloquent in utter- 
ance, wise in counsel, decisive in action, public-spirited, liberal to the extent 
of his means, with a charity and sympathy as broad as the race, high toned in 
sentiment and act, and noble and generous in his impulses, he presents an at- 
tractive portrait of unselfishness and earnest devotion to duty, challenging the 
respect and confidence of all. To charming social qualities of a high order 
and an affable address he unites varied and comprehensive knowledge, a re- 
tentive memory, a mind open to all impressions, and an interest in everything 
savoring of intellectual development. His energy and activity are never more 
apparent than when engaged upon any literary composition. He then works 
with great rapidity, seldom revi^-ing or reading his manuscript until it is fin- 
ished. In proof of this assertion we may instance his " Siege of Savannah in 
1864," which was written in seven evenings ; the two volumes of his " History 
of Georgia," which, exclusive of the preliminary study involved, were prepared 



24 History of Augusta. 



at odd intervals during seven months ; and his Memorial Histories of Augusta 
and Savannah, which were begun and completed within less than two months. 
While possessing the abiHty of rapid com|)osition, he also has that other desir- 
able attribute of excellent chorography. His penmanship is faultless, and his 
bold liowiag hand is not only L-gible but very attractive. 

•" It is not an exageration to affirm that Colonel Jones is the most prolific au- 
thor Georgia has ever produced, and stands at the head of the historical writers 
of the South of the present generation." 

Bjfore concluding this notice of Colonel Jones it is proper to add that he 
has been an extensive collector of prehistoric objects illustrative of the anti- 
quities of the Southern Indians; that his authograph collections, which are in 
themselves a treasure-house, embrace two complete sets of the Signers of the 
Declaration oflndependence ; and that he possesses a large and valuable library 
containing many privately illustrated volumes. 



McCOY, WILLIAM K , was born in Augusta, Ga., on November 14, 1840, 
and is the son of Charles and Frances A. (Tutt) McCoy. He was edu- 
cated in the schools of Augusta, but early in life began a mercantile career as 
a clerk in one of the business houses of the city, and when the war between 
the States began was serving as bookkeeper. 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on May 11, 1861, as a private in 
Company A, known as the Clinch Rifles, of the Fifth Georgia Regiment. He 
served throughout the war, and upon the return of peace returned to Augusta 
and began clerking for a living. His first experience in cotton manufactur- 
ing was as bookkeeper for the Graniteville Manufacturing Company ^t Gran- 
iteville, S. C, in January, 1868. The year following he was made cashier of 
that company and stationed in Augusta, in the office of the president, Mr. H, 
H. Hickman, where he remained until April, 1878, when, having resigned, he 
removed to New York and remained there until January, 1879. He then re- 
turned to Augusta, where he purchased the Augusta Waste Works, which he 
successfully operated until October, 1881, when a joint stock company was 
formed, the name of the new company being changed to the Riverside Mills. 
Mr. McCoy was elected president of the new company, a position which he 
has continued to fill until the present time. The growth of the mill under his 
able management has been rapid and most gratifying. At the present time 
about two hundred and twenty five hands' are employed in the manufacture 
of cotton batting, machinery waste and paper stock, being the only concern of 
its kintl in the Southern States. The success of the undertaking is largely due 
to the exertions of Mr. McCoy, who, from the beginning, has given it almost 
his undivided attention as well as watchful care. 

Mr. McCoy is also interested in other corporations, being a member of the 



Biographical. 25 



board of directors of the following institutions : The John P. King Manufac- 
turing Company, Augusta Land Company, Georgia Railroad and Banking 
Company, the Manufacturers' Insurance Mutual Aid Society, which is strictly 
an insurance company, and the Southern Manufacturers' Association. 

Mr. McCoy is a member of St. Paul Church, and has taken an active part 
in the Masonic order, being a thirty-second degree Mason, and is a past grand 
captain-general of the Grand Commandery of the State of Georgia. He was 
married in 1878 to Mrs. Katharine Hammond Gregg, who died in 1882. 

Leaving the Confederate ranks in the spring of 1865 a penniless soldier, 
Mr. McCoy has by his energy, his persistent and determined efforts gained a 
most creditable place among the successful business men of Augusta. He is 
thorough master of his line of business and feels a justified pride in its progress. 
He is a hard worker, methodical in his methods, and possesses executive and 
administrative ability to a marked degree. High minded and of the strictest 
integrity, his standing in this community, in all that constitutes good citizen- 
ship, is of the highest order. 

PHINIZY, CHARLES H., of Augusta, was born January 15. 1835, on 
what is known as the Eve plantation, a few miles from the city of Augusta, 
and is a son of John and Martha (Cresswell) Phinizy. His early education was 
received at home until his preparation for a collegiate course, when he entered 
the State University of Georgia, graduating from that institution in 1853. He 
afterwards took a course of scientific study under D. H. Mahan, professor of 
engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For some 
two or three years thereafter he was employed as a civil engineer during the 
construction of the Blue Ridge Railroad. 

At the beginning of the war between the States he entered the Confederate 
service as first lieutenant of Company B, of the Tenth Georgia Regiment. He 
was soon after transferred to the adjutant general's department and assigned to 
duty with Brigadier-General Alfred Cummings. In the consolidation of regi- 
ments in 1865 he was commissioned as colonel of the Thirty- ninth Georgia 
Regiment, which position he held until the final surrender of the Confederate 
army. He Served in Battles of Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Malvern Hill, 
Sharpsburg. siege of Vicksburg, Hood's campaign in Tennessee, Missionary 
Ridge, Jonesboro, Powder Springs Road, Bennettsville, and in innumerable 
smaller engagements, and surrendered at Greensboro, N. C. 

After the close of the war Colonel Phinizy, in the fall of 1865, embarked 
in the cotton factorage business in Augusta, which he successfully conducted 
until 1879, when he retired from this line of business. In the meantime he 
had become largely interested in railroad operation and construction, and soon 
after his retirement from the cotton business, in 1879, he was elected president 
of the Georgia Railroad and the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company. 



26 History of Augusta. 



He remained as president of the Georgia Railroad until it was leased in May, 
1 88 1, since which time he has been one of the six commissioners who have 
general charge of the road. He is still president of the banking company, a 
position he has filled most creditably to himself and to the entire satisfaction 
of the stockholders and directors. In 1882 he was elected president of the 
Augusta Factory, but after holding this position for five years he resigned in 
1887. Since July, 1888, he has also been president of the Atlanta and West 
Point Railroad. Besides his large interest in the corporation named he is a 
director in the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia, the Port 
Royal and Augusta Railroad, the Port Royal and Western Carolina Railroad, 
the Western Railroad of Alabama, and the Augusta Factory. During the late 
Augusta National Exposition Colonel Phinizy was first vice-president of this 
enterprise, and by his personal efforts largely contributed to its success. 

As a business man Colonel Phinizy's course has been marked by rare suc- 
cess. He is conservative, possesses excellent judgment and a high degree of 
administrative ability. His business ventures have all been in the legitimate 
line of trade and commerce, and his success has been won by fair and honor- 
able methods. He possesses in the highest degree the respect and confidence 
of the people of this community, where the entire years of his life have been 
passed, and where few names are better known than his own. While a thor- 
ough business man in the best sense of the term, he is social and affable in dis- 
position, and in his home dispenses a hospitality typical of the true Southern 
gentleman. Colonel Phinizy was married in 1885, to the widow of F. B. 
Phinizy, and daughter of Colonel B. C. Yancey, of Georgia. 



SIBLEY, JOSIAH, the eighth in lineal descent from John Sibley, who, in 
1629, removing from St. Albans in Hertfordshire, England, settled first 
at Naumkeag (Salem), and afterwards at Charlestown, Mass., was born at Ux- 
bridge, in that State on the ist of April, 1808. His father, Joel Sibley, was a 
farmer, and the subject of this sketch was the third of four sons. His mother, 
Lois, was the daughter of h^zekiel Wood, of Uxbridge, Mass. Until 1821 Jos- 
iah's life was passed at home, where he lent a helping hand to the agricultural 
employment and the domestic engagements incident to the conduct of his fath- 
er's farm. His early education was acquired in the district school of his native 
town. 

When only thirteen years of age he left the parental roof and came to Au- 
gusta, Ga., where his elder brothers — Amory and Royal — hsfci established them- 
selves in business and were conducting a thriving trade. His first employ- 
ment was as a clerk in their store. The compensation allowed was small, his 
brothers agreeing to furnish board and clothing, and permitting him to retain 
as a salary whatever profit was realized in the establishment from the sale of 
fishing tackle and pocket knives. This opportunity for personal emolument 



Biographical. 27 



was subsequently enlarged when his brothers consented that he should deal in 
oranges, and appropriate to his own use whatever pecuniary benefits might 
accrue from the sale of this fruit. His first venture in this line was in associ- 
ation with Mr. Edward Padelford, of Savannah. 

The dealings begun in this modest way between these lads — both newly 
arrived in Georgia — developed in after years into large and profitable trans- 
actions covering the staple commodities of this region. Both of them became 
prominent merchants, and accumulated large fortunes. When Mr. Sibley fixed 
his home in Augusta it was a frontier town of only some six thousand inhabit- 
ants. Its trade, however, transcended what might ordinarily have been ex- 
pected from a population of that size. Communication with the coast was 
maintained by means of boats ascending and descending the Savannah River. 
Cotton from an extensive region here found a ready market ; and from this 
point were obtained supplies of various sorts which were consumed not only in 
Middle and Upper Georgia, but also in Alabama, Tennessee, and the Caro- 
linas. The wagon trade with distant points was extensive. The commercial 
activity of Augusta was pronounced, and mercantile ventures were generally 
remunerative. Mr. Royal Sibley dying in 1822, Mr. Josiah Sibley continued 
with his brother Amory until 1828, when he was admitted into partnership with 
him. Under the firm name of A. & J. Sibley these gentlemen opened a busi- 
ness establishment as wholesale and retail merchants and dealers in cotton, in 
the town of Hamburg in South Carolina. For many years after its completion 
that village formed one of the termini of the South Carolina Railroad. Great 
difficulty was experienced in obtaining permission for that corporation to cross 
the Savannah River and connect with Augusta. Hamburg was then a thriv- 
ing town, and considerable business was transacted within its limits. Between 
fifty and seventy thousand bales of cotton were annually sold in its streets. 
Taking advantage of the situation, and in a large measure monopohzing this 
trade, the brothers Sibley for several years conducted a large and lucrative 
business at this point. In 1849 Mr.- Amory Sibley who, for some time, had 
filled the office of president of the Mechanics Bank, and was one of the fore- 
most cotton buyers of this region, died. Prior to this event Mr. Josiah Sibley 
had purchased his brothers interest in the concern and had been conducting on 
his own account the business which had been built up by the firm of A. & J. 
Sibley. In 1853 he associated in partnership with himself his eldest son, Mr. 
William C. Sibley. The firm was then known as J. Sibley & Son. Two years 
afterwards, Hamburg having entered upon a period of decadence, and the fa- 
cilities for conducting business operations being superior on the Georgia side 
of the Savannah River, J. Sibley & Son removed to Augusta. As they re- 
spectively attained unto manhood, Samuel, George, and Robert — sons of Mr. 
Josiah Sibley — were successively admitted as members of the firm, which was 
thereafter known as Josiah Sibley & Sons. By this partnership was an ex- 



28 History of Augusta. 



tensive and profitable business carried on in purchasing and shipping cotton, 
and also in the sale of that commodity on commission. No mercantile house 
in Augusta stood in higher repute. By none were more important commer- 
cial transactions negotiated. 

Mr. Josiah Sibley retired from active business in 1874. Until his death, 
which occurred in the village of Summcrville, Richmond county, Ga., on the 
7th of December, 1888, he gave his personal attention to the management of his 
large estate, and to supervising his planting interests, in which he was deeply 
concerned. 

In association with Mr. Langley and others, he was, in 1870, instrumental 
in organizing the Langley Manufacturing Compan)^ As a leading director he 
always manifested the liveliest interest in the success of that establishment, 
over the fortunes of which his son. Major William C. Sibley, presided with so 
much ability. 

His zeal in developing the material interests of the community with which 
he was so long and so intimately associated was further manifested in his lib- 
eral contribution of time, money, and influence toward the erection and equip- 
ment of the Sibley Cotton Mill in Augusta, than which there is no more sub- 
stantial or attractive manufacturing establishment in the South. In token of 
the universal respect and esteem in which he was held, and as a recognition of 
his valuable aid in this important behalf, this extensive and beautiful mill was 
named in his honor. It is an ornament to the region ; and, under the capable 
management of Major William C. Sibley, gives promise of a profitable future. 

While never an office holder or a seeker after political preferment, Mr. Sib- 
ley was always public-spirited, and prompt to bear his share of the responsi- 
bilities which a community has the right to impose upon its rich and influen- 
tial members. 

For many years he w-as a director in the Mechanics' Bank, and also in the 
Georgia Railroad and Banking Company. In 1867 and 1868 he was a mem- 
ber of the city council of Augusta, and, at one time was of the committee 
which devised the scheme for retiring the bonded indebtedness of the city of 
Augusta by means of a sinking fund. With the enlargement of the city canal, 
with the conduct of the Augusta Land Company, and with the administration 
of the affairs of the Augusta Orphan Asylum, he was closely identified. In his 
religious belief Mr. Sibley was a Presbyterian, and his charities in support of the 
ministrations of religion and the promulgation of Christianity were constant and 
liberal. 

The distinguishing traits of his character were absolute integrity, inflexible 
honesty, admirable business sagacity, tireless industry, and generous, though 
discriminating philanthropy. He neglected no obligation, and was a pillar of 
strength and confidence in the community. His influence was always exerted 
in the support of justice and right, and he has left an impress for good upon his 
day and generation. 



Biographical. . 29 



Mr. Sibley was twice married : First on the 25th of July, 1 83 1 , to Miss Sarah 
Ann Crapon, the daughter of William and Hannah Crapon, of Providence, R. I. 
Eleven children were the fruit of this marriage, to wit: William Crapon, born 
May 3, 1832; Henry Josiah, born November 19, 1833, died July 25, 1864; 
Samuel Hale, born September 9, 1835, "^i^d December, 1884; Sophia Matilda, 
born October 16, 1837 '. George Royal, born July 19, 1839, died July, 1887 ; 
Fannie Maria, born October 13, 1841, died December 20, 1842; Mary Lois, 
born September 3, 1843, diegl February 23, 1864; Alice Maria, born February 
9, 1846; Robert Pendleton, born February 17, 1848; Caroline Crapon, born 
February 21, 1850, died November 16, 1858, and Amor^^ Walter, born June 
19, 1852. Mr. Sibley's second wife was Miss Emma Eve Longstreet, of Rich- 
mond county, Ga. To them four children were born, namely, John Adams, 
born September i, 1861 ; James Longstreet, born August 4, 1863; Mary Bones, 
born March 29, 1865, and Emma Josephine, born February 23, 1867. 

In his domestic relations, in his intercourse with his fellow-man, in his busi- 
ness transactions, and in his association with church and community, Mr. Sib- 
ley's conduct was marked by purity, probity, liberality, public spirit, and Chris- 
tian integrity. He was emphatically a just, an honest, an influential, and a 
God fearing man. 

THOMPSON, JP2SSE, was born in Camden, South Carolina, July 19, 1843, 
and is the son of Starling and Margaret Thompson. He moved with his 
parents to Augusta in 1854, and here his early education was principally re- 
ceived. His father was a carpenter and builder, and as soon as his son was 
old enough to engage in work he entered the employ of W. H. Goodrich, a 
well known builder. Before he had made much advance in his chosen occu- 
pation, the civil war began, and in January, 1861, he entered the Confederate 
service as a member of the First Carolina Regiment, and remained with this 
command until the end of its period of enlistment. He then re-enlisted in 
Blodgett's Artillery, of Augusta, and at the reorganization of the army in 1862, 
at Yorktown, he was made a first lieutenant of a company, and served in that 
capacity until the war closed 

After the war he returned to Augusta, and entered the employ of a firm 
engaged in building and manufacturing carpenter's supplies. In 1868 he be- 
came a member of this firm by purchasing the interest of one of the partners, 
the firm at this time being known as McMurphy & Thompson, the individual 
members, besides the subject of this sketch, being A. M. McMurphy and W. 
K. Thompson. W. K. Thompson retired in 1872, when G. S. Heindel be- 
came a partner under the firm name of Thompson & Heindel. No change 
occured in the firm until about five years ago, when Mr. Heindel died. The 
present firm of Jesse Thompson & Co. was then formed, which besides the 
senior partner, is now composed of Louis Thompson, A. G. Sherman and Will- 
iam S. Gregg, all three of whom were formerly in Mr. Thompson's employ. 



30 History of Augusta. 



During the earlier years of the existence of this firm, besides dealing in 
lumber and the manufacture of sash, doors and blinds, contracting and build- 
ing represented an important feature of the business, and many of the public 
and private buildings in the city were erected by them, but of late years their 
lumber and manufacturing business has engrossed their entire attention. Their 
business has steadily grown from year to year, and at the present time at their 
well equipped plant on the corner of ^plale and Centre streets about ninety men 
are employed. 

Several years ago they established a saw- mill in Emanuel county, where lum- 
ber for their factory is sawed. For the purpose of bringing their supplies to 
the city they built in 1880 a railroad since known as the Midville and Swains- 
boro Railroad. It is twenty-two miles in length, and runs from Midland on the 
Georgia Central to the county seat of Emanual county. As the country along 
the line of this road became developed, a general railroad business was secured 
by the line. Since May, 1888, it has been operated under a separate charter, 
Mr. Thompson being general manager and principal owner. Three saw- mills 
are now located on this line, the one operated by Jesse Thompson & Co. em- 
ploying about sixty men. 

In the development of the business with which he has been so long con- 
nected, Mr. Thompson has achieved well deserved success He is and has 
been for years the main factor in its prosperity, and has given it his almost 
undivided attention. The line of his efforts have all been in the direction from 
which Augusta has reaped substantial reward, and his success has been to the 
material advancement of the city. As a business man he has the entire con- 
fidence of the business community, while his standing as a citizen both in pub- 
lic and private life is above reproach. In 1885 '^^ organized the Augusta Ice 
Company for the manufacture of ice, of which he has since been president. 
He was also one of the directors of the Augusta National Exposition. He is 
a member of the St. James Methodist Church, of which he has been one of the 
Stewarts for the last four years, and was a most liberal contributor towards its 
remodeling and construction in 1888. Often solicited to enter public life he 
has steadfastly declined to become a candidate for office. Public station has 
no charm for him, while his private business commands all of his time and 
energies. 

Mr. Thompson was married in 1868 to Miss Jane Fulghum, of Augusta, 
who died in April, 1885. Seven children were born to them, all of whom are 
living. Mr. Thompson's present wife was Miss S. A. Stubb, of Augusta, to 
whom he was married in June, 1887. 



KING, JOHN PENDLETON. Among those who attained an exalted 
standard of excellence in the community in which they resided, who pro- 
moted the mental, moral and material development of their age and State, and 



Biographical. 31 



the record of whose lives constitute an abiding example for the guidance and 
emulation of the coming generations was the Hon. John Pendleton King, of 
Augusta, Ga. His career was adorned by purity, honesty, courage, fidelity 
and patriotism ; and the achievements and acts of a life dignified by a con- 
stant and illustrious manifestation of these cardinal traits are eminently worthy 
of narration. 

He was born April 3rd, 1799, near Glasgow, Barron county, Ky., and was 
the son of Francis King, formerly of Hanover county, Va , and Mary Patrick, 
of Pendleton District, in South Carolina. Soon after his birth his father moved 
to Bedford county, l^enn., where his schooling began at the age of nine years. 
He boarded at the school during the week, making his way there and back on 
horseback. In his sixteenth year, provided by his father with a sufficient sum 
of money and a good horse, he set out for Columbia county, Ga., the home of 
a maternal uncle. On the way he crossed Tennessee River at Lowery's Ferry, 
the reservation of old John Lowery, the Cherokee Chief, and was so struck 
with the beauty of the place, that years afterward, when it was on the market 
he bought it, and it is now in the possession of his son. 

After a short sojourn in Columbia county he went to Augusta, where, in 
18 17, he entered Richmond Academy, one of the oldest institutions of learn- 
ing in the United States, and by unremitting industry he was enabled to ac- 
quire a fair education. Upon completing his academic course he commenced 
the study of law in the office of Major Freeman Walker, then a leading lawyer 
and accomplished orator in Augusta, and was admitted to the bar in August, 
1819, before he reached his majority. The young attorney rapidly acquired 
a large and lucrative practice, which was largely augmented soon after his 
admission to the bar by Major Walker, who, having been elected to the United 
States Senate, showed his confidence in young King by transferring to him his 
own practice. 

Money came to him easily. Wealth earned for him ease, and at a time 
when most men are striving to redouble their fortunes young King leisurely 
sailed for Europe in December, 1821, where he spent two years, and added to 
his practical knowledge the benefits of travel and the study of language, man- 
ners and men. He was at a receptive age. His activity had not been im- 
paired by long drudgery and impending age. His travel was worth more to 
him than it could ever be again. He mastered systems and observed methods. 
So that when he returned to his home in Augusta he had blended with his 
technical training and professional skill a wider range of information. In Paris 
he made the acquaintance of General Lafayette, then about to pay a visit to 
the United States as the invited guest of the American Congress. On the 
ocean voyage he sailed on the same vessel with Mr. King, and during the 
journey they became intimately acquainted and a lasting friendship was formed. 
After the distinguished gentleman had made a trip through the North, visiting 



32 History of Augusta. 



Boston, New York, Washington, and all the other principal cities, he visited 
Augusta in the fall of 1825. Here he was entertained by Mr. King, who ac- 
companied him through the cit\-, where he was received with the highest honors. 
On the occasion of his reception Mr. King was selected to deliver the address 
of welcome 

The panic of 1825 greatly increased litigation and enlarged the profits of 
the legal profession, and after a few years successful practice Mr. King retired 
in 1829 to give his whole attention to his large estate and extensive private 
interests. He showed a striking aptitude for the law ; his mind was of that 
clear and analytical caste, and his reasoning powers so exact and incisive as 
eminently to fit him for the discussion of legal propositions. If he had adhered 
to the law and his ambition had led him in the direction of professional prefer- 
ment, he could have reached and would have adorned the highest judicial 
positions in the land. 

In 1830 he attended a convention called for the reform of the State Con- 
stitution, in which the important question of the equalization of representation 
was strongly advocated by him. It was opposed, however, by so many local 
interests that it failed to be ratified by the people. 

He was appointed by Governor Lumpkin in 1831 judge of the Court of 
Common Pleas, a position he held but for a short time, long enough, however, 
to give him the title by which he was so long afterwards known. In 1833 he 
was chosen a member of the Constitutional Convention of Georgia of that year. 
In this body he greatly distinguished himself; he was a Jackson Democrat and 
took the lead of that party in the convention By his debates in the conven- 
tion, and especially by his discussions with the late William H. Crawford, he 
gained a reputation as one of the ablest and most eloquent men in Georgia. 

In the fall of 1833, while attending to some private business in Vicksburg, 
he received intelligence that, without being a candidate, he had in his absence 
been elected to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate occasioned by the 
resignation of the distinguished statesman, George M. Troup. This was a 
great compliment to Judge King's abilities to award him, unsought, the suc- 
cessorship to so gifted and accomplished a gentleman as Governor Troup, but 
a still higher one when at the termination of the unexpired term of two years 
he was re elected for the full term of six years. Appointed to this high office 
in his thirty-fourth year he enjoyed the peculiar privilege of being the young- 
est senator of his time, if not of any time in the history of the Senate. In those 
days the great intellectual gladiators were figuring upon the floor of the Amer- 
ican Senate; Calhoun, Webster and Clay, Benton, Wight, Buchanan, Bayard, 
and Forsyth were there, and many grave questions were before the country 
demanding wise and patriotic .solution. Andrew Jackson was president, of 
whom it was aptly said " his every step was a contest, and every contest a 
victory." It was at a time like this, when not only the questions of currency 



Biographical. 33 



and finance springing out of the action in regard to the National Bank, but 
also the questions arising upon the disposition to be made of the public lands, 
the removal of the Indians across the Mississippi, internal improvements by 
the general government, the tariff, the French spoliation bill, the reception ot 
abolition petitions, and many other important questions were demanding set- 
tlement, that Judge King entered the United States Senate and took and 
maintained a high position. Speaking but seldom, he took part in the debate 
upon most of these grave issues, and at once won position in that body as a man 
of fine abilities and culture, and as an inductive reasoner and logical debater 
whose powers were of superior order. As evidence of this many compliments 
from senators and warm discussions maintained with him by the ablest in that 
body might be adduced. But it will suffice for this purpose to mention the 
fact that Thomas H. Benton himself, one of the first men in the country, and 
noted alike for his powers as a logician and his vast and varied learning, in his 
speech delivered in the Senate on the French spoliation bill, took occasion to 
specially compliment the speech of Judge King, delivered in the Senate on the 
same subject. He said, among other things : " The gentleman from Georgia 
(Mr. King) has given a valid and able picture of the exertions of the United 
States government in behalf of these claims. He has shown that they have 
been paid, on our part, by the invaluable blood of our citizens. Such is the 
fact, etc." But in his most interesting and readable book, entitled, "Thirty 
Years in the United States Senate," Mr. Benton pays a further compliment to 
Judge King, by reproducing in it a short debate between him and Mr. Calhoun, 
and which is adverted to here, and will be briefly noticed for the purpose of 
illustrating a characteristic trait exhibiting itself through the whole life of the 
subject of this sketch. Mr. Calhoun had asked for the appointment of a special 
committee, to which should be referred so much of the president's message as 
related to mail transmission of incendiary publications. This was opposed by 
Mr. King, of Alabama, and Mr. Grundy, the chairman of the committee on 
post-offices and post-roads, on the ground that that was the appropriate com- 
mittee for such reference. Mr. Calhoun insisted, however, on his view that 
the committee should be a special one, and be appointed mainly from that sec- 
tion whose security and rights were threatened by this unlawful use of the 
mails, arid the Senate yielded to his wish and permitted him to name the com- 
mittee, which he at once proceeded to do, as follows: Mr. Calhoun, chairman ; 
Mr. King, of Georgia ; Mr. Manguni, of North Carolina ; Mr. Davis, of Massa- 
chusetts ; and Mr. Linn, of Missouri. A bill and report was soon brought in 
by the committee — a bill subjecting to penalties any postmaster who should 
knowingly receive and put into the mail a publication or picture touching the 
subject of slavery. When the report was read a motion was made to print 
5,000 extra copies of it. This motion brought several of the committee to 
their feet, among them Judge King, who protested that some of the views (Mr. 



34 History of Augusta. 



Calhoun had injected into it some of his pccuHar nuUification views) were not 
concurred in by him, though many parts of the report had his hearty concur- 
rence. It was also the view of Judge King that by giving to the matter such 
special prominence, excitement would be engendered, and thus produce injury 
rather than benefit. In the progress of the debate Judge King used the fol- 
lowing sententious and somewhat severe remarks, to wit : " That positions had 
been assumed and principles insisted upon by Mr. Calhoun not only inconsis- 
tent with the bill reported, but he thought inconsistent with the Union itself, 
and which, if established and carried into practice, would hastily end in its dis- 
solution." Without quoting further from this discussion let it be remembered 
that the sole use designed to be made of the quotation given is to present in 
bold relief a striking characteristic of the man, and which has ever given his 
opinions and position commanding weight and influence, to wit: his self- 
reliance and manly independence of thought and will, the ever sure indicia of 
strong intellect and the unfailing harbinger (when wisely restrained in limits 
of prudence and modesty, as was the case with him) of usefulness and success. 

It was no ordinary compliment for Mr. Calhoun to suggest his name first 
on that special committee. Lesser men than Judge King might have been so 
flattered by it as not to have been conscious of a subordination of their own 
views and convictions on grave questions raised in committee to the masterly 
power and will of this truly great statesman. Not so with Judge King. Noth- 
ing could bend or swerve his mental independence, and the debate, which 
was participated in by Clay, Webster and others, will show with what vigor 
and ability he boldly dissented from the great Carolinian. Many and very 
interesting extracts might be introduced here from his various speeches while 
in the Senate on the questions of deep public concern in that day, that would 
go to show the high capacities of their author for the duties then devolved 
upon him, and excite regret that his inclination led him away from a position 
of so much distinction and responsibility, and for which he was so eminently 
fitted. He had no toleration for injustice, but demanded equality and equity 
in all matters, and he ever especially opposed the practice of officials taking 
liberties, even to the smallest extent, with the public property or funds en- 
trusted for the time to their guardianship. 

In his speech on the bill to prohibit the sales of the public lands except to 
actual settlers, the question before the Senate being on the motion of Mr. Clay 
to strike out the fourth section, which contained the pre-emption principles, 
he said he viewed the bill as establishing a system of partiality, plunder and 
perfidy — a system in which those who had the least merit would make the most 
profitable speculations. If the bill passed at all, he was indifferent as the de- 
tails of it ; perhaps it would be better for the country if it should pass in the 
worst shape in which it had been presented. It was not surprising that it 
should be popular with those who were to be greatly benefited by it ; but that 



Biographical. 35 



those whose constituents were to be plundered should tamely submit was not 
and ought not to be expected. But he was much mistaken if this measure 
could be protected from the discontent and indignation with which the great 
majority of the United States always visit a course of injustice and oppression. 
They should recollect that the public lands were public treasure, and belonged 
as much to the whole people of the United States as the money in the treas- 
ury, and should be protected precisely in the same way, and should be dis- 
tributed among the States with as much equality as possible. A very large 
portion of the property was acquired by the common blood and treasure of the 
old thirteen States, and the other portion was purchased with the money of the 
whole derived from the taxation on the consumption of the country, the con- 
sumers being principally in the old States. 

Senator Bayard, father of the present distinguished senator of that name, 
followed Judge King, and spoke in very eulogistic terms of his speech, com- 
mencing with the remark, " he had listened with great delight to the senator 
from Georgia, who has given a true exposition of facts as connected with the 
speculation going on in public lands and the effects which would result from 
passing the bill." 

This speech was one of the ablest dehvered on that question, and no man 
can read it now without understanding how it was that Judge King so thor- 
oughly commanded the attention of the senators, as he always did, when he 
went fully into the discussion of a question. 

He has been from his youth up an eminently practical man. One short 
sentence uttered by him in passing, while making a speech of much power in 
the Senate on the currency question, plainly but fully illustrates his character 
in this particular. Said he : " We should never resort to theory when we have 
the lights of experience to guide us." 

Soon after he had taken his seat as a senator from Georgia, alongside of 
the eloquent and powerful Forsyth, a proposition was being discussed that 
Judge King instantly condemned as being an unauthorized attempt to bestow 
favor upon the representatives of the people in an unconstitutional way. 

The resolution authorized the purchase of thirteen copies of the American 
State Papers, and Messrs. Frelinghuysen and Ewing explained that the work 
was indispensible to members of Congress in the performance of their legisla- 
tive duties and was already printed ; and the object was only to supply those 
new senators (Judge King was one of them) who had not yet obtained them. 
Judge King opposed the resolution on constitutional grounds, " that it was 
taking money out of the treasury for the purchase of books for private libra- 
ries of members without an appropriation by law ; and that any other works 
might, with the same propriety, be purchased, and to any amount and extent." 
He admitted " that works might be purchased which were necessary for the 
use of the members in performance of their public duties ; but that they should 



36 History of Augusta. 



be confined to the office, and not given as an absolute property to the officer; " 
and he moved, though unsuccessfully, to lay the resolution on the table for the 
balance of the session. He also and for the same reason opposed the clause in 
the appropriation bill for the purchase for members of Congress of the " Docu-j 
mentary History of the United States." He said he should vote to strike out 
the clause from the bill, and should thus vote against the amendment of his 
colleague. He thought there was no more authority in Congress to set up a 
book shop tiian to set up a millinery shop, to buy books for members than, to 
buy bonnets for ladies. He referred to the constitutional powers of Congress, 
and declared from none of them was the authority derived. He expressed 
the belief that the work, if authorized, would cost the government three or four 
millions of dollars. He disclaimed any intention to cast censure upon the con- 
tractors, but was of the opinion that the contract was erroneously and uncon- 
stitutionally entered into ; and that the secretary of State had been taken in. 

This has been a fixed principle of Judge King's whole life when dealing 
with funds not his own, as many will admit, who know with what pertinacity 
and uncompromising hostility he has, as president of the Georgia Railroad, 
opposed any and every species of deadheadism. 

Although a thorough Union Democrat he did not at all times approve and 
endorse every feature of party policy put forth by those who claimed to be the 
leaders ; and he would thus sometimes subject himself to severe criticism anp 
censure from the merely partisan press and politicians. Even in those days 
of high party excitement and passion he differed with some of the measures of 
the Jackson administration, for then as ever through his whole life he was op- 
posed to what he considered extremes, and always had the fearless, indepen- 
dent manhood and honesty to oppose them, even when advocated by his 
warmest political friends. 

But the jars and wrangling and constant excitement incident to political 
life were unsuited to his tastes and habits of thought, and some of the party 
press of the State having censured, unjustly as he thought, a very notable 
speech he made against some of the leading measures of Mr. Van Buren's ad- 
ministration, he, in 1837, pi'omptly resigned the trust committed to his charge 
and retired into private life. " No like abandonment of politics from personal 
disgust," says Alexander H. Stephens, " has ever occurred in the history of the 
United States." It may be added here that he never afterward accepted polit- 
ical preferment, and his career thus exhibits the rare distinction, unparalleled 
perhaps in our political history, of having held but one political office, and that 
the highest — the office of United State senator. 

Judge King had served throughout as a Democrat, but never as a dema- 
gogue. He always declined to be a partisan. He bitterly opposed the nullifica- 
tion theories of Mr. Calhoun; he did not justify the removal of bank deposits by 
President Jackson ; he declined even to sanction the efforts of his own colleague. 



Biographical. 37 



Forsyth, to furnish the Senate with important documents at public expense. 
He fought the system of pre-emption of public land, and made a record against 
monopoly and money power in every form. He voted with his party when 
Democracy seemed right, and fought them openly whenever they went wrong. 
He was fearless, honest, unyielding and resourceful, blunt, candid and impetu- 
ous, and was always practical and profound. 

The monetary affairs of the country, through reckless legislation, were at this 
time in a most disordered condition, and great financial misery existed every- 
where. Commercial enterprises in Georgia as elsewhere were completely par- 
alyzed, and the affairs of the Georgia Railroad being in an embarassed state, 
he was pressed by the shareholders to assume its management. This road was 
commenced in 1835, and was projected to connect Augusta with Atlanta by 
way of Madison, with a branch line to Athens. When Judge King assumed the 
management, in 1841, it was only completed as far as Madison. Having agreed 
to take charge of its affairs for a period of two years, he placed his own pri- 
vate fortune and credit at the command of the company, and ere long by good 
management and close economy, put it on a safe and remunerative footing; 
He completed the main line to Atlanta and the branch to Athens without call- 
ing upon the stockholders for a dollar, and the earnings of the road increased 
to such an extent under his management that besides paying large dividends 
for many years he had, at the beginning of the war in 1861, a surplus of some- 
thing over $1,000,000 in hand. During the war the rolling stock and track of 
the road was almost entirely destroyed by Sherman's raiders, the loss aggre- 
gating nearly $3,000,000. The restoration was necessarily very gradual, and 
it has only been within recent years that it has been put in as good condition 
as before the war. 

In his first report to the stockholders after the war in 1866, treating of the 
discouraging outlook and of the political restrictions in business, Mr. King 
says: "The question occurs, how long is this condition to continue ? The di- 
rectors are no politicians or prophets, but they will venture a prediction, which 
accords with their hopes, that it cannot continue long. Our hopes rest upon 
the obvious truth that the interests of the people of the whole United States are 
identified with our own. However passion and prejudice may obscure the truth 
for a time, it will soon be seen and felt that the great industrial and consuming 
classes and the governing class are in a position of antagonism to each other. 
Every material condition at the North and West is much concerned in the rapid 
restoration of Southern industry. To the navigating, commercial, financial, 
mining, manufacturing and agricultural interests Southern products are vastly 
important, and to some of them these interests are almost vital. Let convic- 
tion of these obvious truths penetrate the national heart, and the contest can- 
not last long." 

Banking privileges were granted by the State to the Georgia Railroad, and 



38 History of Augusta. 



previous to the war it was a bank of issue. It has always had a large deposit 
and discount business, and from the status given it by the wealth and standing 
of its stockholders, ranks probably higher than any other banking institution 
in Georgia. 

Perceiving the necessity of connecting the Georgia Railroad with the south- 
western part of the State, Judge King in the early years of his connection with 
railroad operations built the Atlanta and West Point Railroad, and under his 
direction as its president it became one of the most profitable railroad enter- 
prises in the country, though like other Southern roads it suffered considerable 
losses during the war. 

Judge King remained in active control and management of the Georgia 
Railroad until May, 1878. During this long period — over a third of a cen- 
tury — he was a leading spirit in the railroad development of the South, and 
to no one is the State of Georgia more indebted for its present facilities than 
to him. Commencing with the incipient stages of railway transportation in 
America he found a field where his great talents could be more congenially 
employed than in the political arena, and with all the energy of his nature, 
unusual executive and administrative ability, he gave himself up heart and 
soul to the material development of his State and section. He succeeded in 
his endeavor as he had succeeded in every thing he undertook, but in that suc- 
cess the people of the whole State shared, and are still reaping the immeasur- 
able benefits of his exertions. 

Judge King while connected with railroad management studiously abstained 
from politics, but in 1865 he was prevailed upon to take a seat in the Constitu- 
tional Convention of that year, where his sound judgment, patriotism and emi- 
nently practical wisdom largely influenced its action. James Johnson was the 
provisional governor of Georgia under President Andrew Johnson's plan of 
reconstruction, and all looked forward with confidence to the re-admission of 
the Southern States to the Union on the known liberal terms of President Lin- 
coln, but the dispute between President Johnson and Congress defeated these 
moderate measures, and rendered the work of the convention nugatory. 

Judge King was one of a few public-spirited citizens of Augusta who pro- 
jected the Augusta Canal, which was commenced in 1845, ^"<^ ^^s also an in- 
fluential stockholder in the early days of the Augusta factory. 

At the time of his retirement from railroad life Judge King had nearly com- 
pleted his four-score years, and he then withdrew from active business into the 
retirement of private life. For nearly forty years he was president of the Geor- 
gia Railroad, For ten years he had been living a retired life. His winters were 
passed in the wooded seclusion of the Sand Hills; his summers sped away on 
the heights of North Carolina, and the lengthening shadows, sloping peacefully 
to the horizon, seemed to trace in heroic outlines the characters of a remarka- 
ble life. After a brief illness of only a few days, he died of congestion of the 
lungs on Monday, March 19, 1887. 



Biographical. 39 



In reviewing the career and achievements of Judge King we find in his 
stately and symmetrical character much to admire, much that is worthy of em- 
ulation. By his own energy, integrity, physical and mental activity, and un- 
swerving devotion to justice and right he attained a high place in the confi- 
dence of his fellow-citizens, and might have won a still higher niche in the tem- 
ple of political fame had not his tastes and inclinations drawn him from the 
political arena to the financial world, where his remarkable abilities, natural and 
acquirec^, could find fitting scope. He was a close student and a vigorous and 
forcible writer, as his numerous contributed articles to the journals of the day 
during important political crises so clearly revealed. Well versed in the public 
affairs of his own country, in which he was thoroughly abreast of the time, he 
also had an intimate knowledge of political affairs in the old world. To his 
high courage and indomitable will were added many of the social virtues, and 
while ever a resolute antagonist when occasion demanded, he was also a genial 
friend and warm sympathizer with human distress and suffering. Through 
every movement of his business and private Hfe there shone a rigid and un- 
flinching integrity which never yielded to any stress of circumstances, and was 
never misled by any plausible consideration of policy. In his public career and 
private life he was recognized as an upright, honest man, who turned aside 
with manly and unwavering detestation from the devious paths into which the 
managers of great business enterprises are often tempted, and he passed away 
at an age allotted to few men, not only without a stain on his professional, public 
or business record, but conspicuous among all who knew him for his unbend- 
ing integrity. 

The rector of St. Paul's beautifully says of his declining years. " He gath- 
ered a library such as none but a man of wide reading and rare intellectual taste 
could ever collect. The masters of the world's thought in literature, in history 
in science and philosophy looked out from the shelves where he had enthroned 
them They had been the companions of his life, in the Senate of the United 
States, in his office or in his home. But in his last years there was one book 
which seemed to separate itself from all other books, and gradually absorbed 
the whole study of his later life. Day after day and sometimes far into the 
night in the soft glow of the lamp- light, I have seen him with his New Testa- 
ment before him, as only a man of trained mind can absorb himself, in the un- 
tiring study of that book of good." 

Mr. King married in 1842 the only daughter of Mr. John Moore Woodward, 
of New York City. Their eldest daughter married (first) in 1872, the Hon. 
Henry Wodehouse, of the British Embassy in Paris, who died the next year in 
diplomatic service in Athens, Greece, and (second) the Marquis of Anglesey in 
1880. The second daughter married John Berrien Connelly of Burke county, 
and the third, Louise Woodward King, died unmarried in 1879. The latter was 
distinguished at home and abroad for her active efforts on behalf of dumb ani- 



40 History of Augusta. 



mals. She obtained the enactment of a State law for the prevention of cruelty 
to animals, and organized a society for the purpose of enforcing that law. She 
was also the originator and founder of the Louise King Home for Widows in 
this city. The only son, Henry Barclay King, who married in 1884 a daugh- 
ter of Mr. O. E. Cashin, of Augusta, graduated with honors at the University 
of Oxford, England, in 1867. 

YOUNG, Wn.LIAM B., of Augusta, was born in Columbia county, Ga., in 
1838, and is the son of Allen C. and Elizabeth (Dye) Young, the former 
of English and the latter of Irish descent, his paternal ancestors being among 
the early settlers of Maryland and Virginia. In 1844 he came with his parents 
to Augusta where his early education was received in the Augusta Eree School. 
At the early age of twelve years he began a practical business career as a clerk, 
serving in that capacity for four years. He then was employed for three years 
in the car shops of the Georgia Railroad. Then to further perfect his business 
education he attended school for one year, after which he became bookkeeper 
in a grocery store. In 1859 he became a partner in the grocery house of 
James A. Ivey & Co., and at the time when the war between the States began 
was conducting a successful business. 

At the time of the beginning of hostilities Mr. Young was a member of the 
Richmond Hussars, a well-known military company organized prior to the war. 
This company volunteered in the defense of the Confederacy in the early part 
of the year 1861, Mr. Young at the time being first corporal. It was assigned 
to Cobb's Georgia Legion, General Hampton's command. General Stuart's corps 
of the Army of Northern Virginia, serving in this department of the army dur- 
ing the entire progress of the war. Corporal Young was promoted to rank of 
first lieutenant in 1862, and in 1863 was made captain'of the company. Captain 
Young participated in all the severe fighting in which his command engaged 
until his capture by the Federals in 1864, including the battle of Seven Pines, 
engagements around Richmond in 1862 — conspicuous for the destructive battle 
of Cold Harbor and Malvern Hill; second battle of Manassas, Harper's Ferry and 
Sharpsburg, the heavy cavalry fighting by General Stuart around Fredericks- 
burg, which included the battle of Brandy Station and Culpepper. This ser- 
vice was followed by the battle of Chancellorsville, General Stuart's almost con- 
stant cavalry fighting between Leesburg and the Blue Ridge and his famous 
raid through Maryland and Pennsylvania. The battle of Gettysburg and the 
memorable engagements in the Wilderness quickly followed. In one of the 
cavalry raids in the Wilderness, Captain Young was captured, and for fourteen 
months was confined as a prisoner of war at the old capitol prison, Washington, 
D.C, and at Fort Delaware. During his period of service Captain Young was 
wounded three times, but was never incapacitated for duty. For the first three 
years of the war few took part in more active, continuous field service than 





(^OU^ 




Biographical. - 41 



Captain Young. Through it all he bravely and courageously did his duty and 
gained a record as a soldier, of which he has a right to feel a justifiable pride. 

After his release as prisoner of war in 1865 Captain Young returned to Au- 
gusta and secured employment as bookkeeper, continuing in such service until 
1873. He then became a member of the wholesale grocery firm of Young & 
Hack, retiring in 1886 after a very prosperous career in this line of trade. 

In 1870 Captain Young was elected a member of the city council of Au- 
gusta, and has served the city almost continuously in this capacity ever since. 
He has proved a most valuable member of the city government, and has been 
foremost in advocating all public improvements, being ever ready to devote his 
time and energies to whatever has promised to promote the best interest of the 
people. He has served on all the important committees of the council, and has 
been chairman at different times of the committees on finance, canals, streets and 
drains, police, health, waterworks and engine. His long experience in the 
management of city affairs has made his services especially valuable, and few- 
are more often consulted concerning questions of public policy, or whose sug- 
gestions are more favorably received by the people He has also taken a deep 
interest in the cause of popular education and for the last ten years has been a 
member of the board of education of Richmond county. 

In the business life of Augusta for several years Captain Young has been 
an important factor. In 1881 he was made president of the Richmond Fac- 
tory, and his management of this enterprise since has been highly satisfactory. 
He was secretary and treasurer of the Augusta, Gibson and Sandersville Rail-- 
road from the inception of the enterprise until it was completed, and has since 
been a director. He was a director in the Augusta and Knoxville Railroad, 
and now holds a similar relationship to the management of the National Ex- 
change Bank, the Augusta Savings Bank, and is a director and secretary of the 
Augusta and Chattanooga Railroad, now in course of construction. Since 1886 
he has been cashier of the Augusta Savings Bank, his duties in the manage- 
ment of this institution and of the Richmond Factory principally engaging his 
time and energies. 

Since 1859 Captain Young has been a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
and has taken a deep interest in the workings of this ancient order. He has 
held various offices of high rank and has been grand commander of Knight 
Templars of Georgia, the highest position in the State. He was an active 
worker in securing the erection of the Masonic Hall in Augusta, and is a mem- 
ber of the board of trustees. 

Captain Young is one of the most liberal and progressive citizens of Au- 
gusta, and cheerfully extends his aid and influence to all deserving public enter- 
prises. As a business man his career has been highly successful and in every 
way commendable. His personal integrity is above reproach, and his con- 
nection or identification with any movement insures public confidence in the 



42 History of Augusta. 



undertaking. He is a man of the most exemplary habits, agreeable and affable 
in disposition and easily wins and holds his friends. His life has been an active 
one, and his career is alike honorable to himself and worthy of imitation. 

He was married in 1871 to Miss Key, daughter of Rev. Caleb Key. They 
have three children, two boys and a girl. Their home is a happy one and here 
Captain Young finds his chief source of happiness. 



WALSH, Hon. PATRICK. Few men of the present generation have 
done as much for Georgia as the Hon. Patrick Walsh, of Augusta ; and 
no man in the city has done more for the advancement of that municipality. 
Alike in State and local matters Mr. Walsh has for years been a safe adviser 
and steadfast friend. 

Mr. Walsh was born in Ballingary, County Limerick, Ireland, on January 
I, 1840. While he was of very early age his father and two brothers emigrated 
to America and settled in Charleston, S. C, where, in 1852, Mr. Walsh joined 
them in company with his mother and sisters. Here the future editor at once 
went to work, being apprenticed to the Charleston Evening Nezvs to learn the 
printer's trade. At the age of eighteen he was master of the typographic art, 
and became his own man as a journeyman printer. The press he adopted as 
a profession, and with the foresight and prudence so characteristic of his nature 
at once devoted himself to a careful preparation for the manifold requirements 
of that most exacting calling. Like so many other men who have wrought 
themselves forward into honorable prominence in the grand arena of life, Mr. 
Walsh was confronted at the outset of his career with that true saying : 

"Slow rises worth by poverty oppressed." 

The yearnings of the lad for an education which should fit him for the 
career his ambition depicted were chilled by the hard necessity of daily toil ; 
but difficulty is only a spur to one of the right mettle, and Mr. Walsh fought 
the battle of life and the struggle for knowledge simultaneously. Just as Alex- 
ander H. Stephens taught school by day and studied law by the glare of light- 
wood knots at night, just as Hugh Miller used mallet and chisel from dawn 
to dusk, and then far into the hours of darkness wrought out the geological 
secrets of the earth, so during the academical hours of the day Mr. Walsh was 
a most diligent student at the Charleston High School, and in the afternoons 
and at night worked as a compositor in the newspaper offices of the city. By 
this untiring double industry he soon found himself prepared to enter college 
and with a modest fund in hand to sustain him while further pursuing his 
studies, and in 1859 became a student of that venerable and renowned seat of 
learning, Georgetown College, in the District of Columbia. His progress here 
was rapid, and but for the gathering war-clouds which then began to over- 
shadow the country, he would have graduated in due course with distinguished 



Biographical. 43 



honors. But in December, i860, South Carolina seceded; in April, 1861, 
the sullen boom of the opening gun reverberated through Charleston Harbor; 
and forthwith closing his books the student returned home and joined the 
Meagher Guards, one of the companies of the First South Carolina Rifle Regi- 
ment, then on duty on SulHvan's Island. On the reorganization of the South 
Carolina forces the Meagher Guards became the Emerald Light Infantry, and 
Mr. Walsh was commissioned as one of its lieutenants and stationed at Castle 
Pinckney. His two brothers also entered the Confederate service. Then the 
blockade becoming established the pinch of want became felt throughout the 
unfortunate, beleaguered Confederacy. An aged father and mother and two 
dependent sisters demanded assistance, and on Mr. Walsh as the youngest son 
and brother was devolved the sacred task. In August, 1862, he came to Au- 
gusta in search of employment, and became a printer on the Constitutionalist. 
In January, 1863, he was promoted to be local and night editor, the latter a 
most responsible position in those times, when each night the wires brought 
news of life and death. 

In 1864 Mr. Walsh,, in conjunction with Mr. L. T. Blome, then an Augusta 
journalist, and afterward for a quarter of a century the valued and efficient 
clerk of the city council, began the publication of the Pacificator, a weekly 
paper which obtained an extended circulation throughout the South, and was 
continued until June, 1865. In founding this journal Mr. Walsh foresaw the 
approaching end of the struggle, so glorious and yet disastrous, and with his 
usual sagacity sought to outline a policy which might secure the South hon- 
orable terms. For months he was so far in advance of public sentiment that 
his efforts failed to meet response, and when, finally, the Confederate govern- 
ment aligned itself upon his idea and sent Vice-President Stephens to negotiate 
at the famous Hampton Roads Conference, the golden moment had passed, 
and nothing remained but to await in silent heroism the bitter end. 

Mr. Walsh's prescience in public affairs has been often signally manifest, 
but this early manifestation of the soundne.ss of his judgment is almost unknown. 
Had his views been acted upon promptly, as they were ultimately, by the Con- 
federate government, precious blood would, in all human probability, have 
been spared, and years of agony, impoverishment, and retardation averted. 

In November, 1866, Mr. Walsh severed his connection with the Constitn- 
tionalist, and became one of the editorial staff of the Chronicle and Sentinel, 
then published by Mr. Henry Moore, and edited by General A. R. Wright. 
After the death of General Wright, Mr. Moore sold his interest in the paper 
in May, 1873, to Mr. Walsh and Mr. H. Gregg Wright, son of the general. 
Mr. Wright edited the paper with great brilliancy and power, and Mr. Walsh 
managed its affairs and directed its policy so wisely and so well that in 1877 it 
absorbed the Constitutionalist, its rival for over half a century. Upon the con- 
solidation, the name of the paper was changed to the Chronicle and Constitu- 



44 History of Augusta. 



tiojialist, but in 1885, the centennial of the Chronicle, the latter portion of the 
name was dropped, thereby resuming the original style under which the jour- 
nal first appeared in 1785. The career of the Chronicle from 1866 to the pres- 
ent time is well known. It has steadily risen in dignity, value and influence, 
until at this hour it is without a superior in the field of Southern journalism. 
From 1866 to the date of this writing, the firm and cautious hand of Mr. 
Walsh has been at the helm, and while in the vicissitudes of twenty-three 
eventful years there have at times been divergencies of view between the 
Chronicle and current public opinion, the verdict of time has almost uniformly 
been in favor of the paper. Sometimes the helmsman sees rocks not discerni- 
ble to the crew ; not infrequently the sentinel on the watch-tower discerns per- 
ils not apparent to the garrison. The record of the CJironiclc on the public 
questions of the last quarter of a century is probably unparalleled for wisdom 
of position and accuracy of view. 

The value of such a journal to the city, the State, and the whole South is 
beyond estimation, and if Mr. Walsh had done nothing else than to build up 
so potent an auxiliary for good, his life would be a benefaction to the people 
whose interests he has watched and whose welfare he has guarded. But, to 
adopt a phrase from Shakespeare, "the people know a good man when they 
find him," and the popular favor has brought Mr. Walsh forth to do them ser- 
vice in other than journalistic fields. In looking over the history of the past 
twenty years we find that in times of exigency. State or municipal, Mr. Walsh 
has been looked to and relied on. 

In 1870, when, after a period of turmoil and distress, the government of 
the State reverted back into the hands of its own people, the public attention, 
no longer fixed on the glitter of bayonets, was directed to measures of indus- 
trial improvement, Augusta in particular shared this impulse, and in 1870, 
and again in 1871, and in 1872 Mr. Walsh was elected a member of the city 
council. In this body he strongly favored the enlargement of the Augusta 
canal, a work which was carried into execution some few years later, and has 
made the city one of the most important centers, if not, indeed, the most im- 
portant cotton manufacturing city in the South. In 1872 Mr. Walsh was 
elected to the Legislature, re elected in 1874, and again in 1876. During this 
extended term he made himself prominent by much legislation of general in- 
terest. In particular he was largely instrumental in securing the holding of 
the State Constitutional Convention of 1877. He was a warm and effective 
supporter of every measure looking to the development of the mining and the 
manufacturing interests of the State. He favored exempting from taxation for 
ten years money invested in woolen mills, cotton factories and iron furnaces; 
and advocated State aid to the Atlantic and Gulf, the Northeastern, and the 
Marietta and North Georgia Railroads. He was in favor of all legislation hav- 
ing in view the furtherance of the moral, educational, and material interests of 



Biographical. 45 



the State, and believed in the poHcy of State aid to pubHc works, when it 
could be extended with a due regard to the public welfare. 

Mr. Walsh also favored the State granting pensions to maimed Confeder- 
ates ; and at the instance of some benevolent ladies of Augusta had a statute 
enacted which makes cruelty to animals a criminal offense — humane and hon- 
orable legislation, which has been perfected and strengthened in late legisla- 
tures, and has saved man's humble friend and servant a world of agony and 
torture. 

In the South Carolina campaign of 1876 Mr. Walsh signally manifested his 
wisdom as a political leader, and his power as a political writer, by his course 
in reference to the conduct of the canvass in that State. The spectacle of this 
proud State of his early home bowed down between negro supremacy on the 
one hand and Federal bayonets on the other powerfully appealed to his heart. 
How to effect deliverance was the burning question of the day in which Georgia 
took almost as deep an interest as the people of the Palmetto State themselves. 
Mr. Walsh counseled a straight out ticket and a square fight for the control 
of the State by its own citizens. This policy was advocated by the Chronicle 
with a power and persistency that was eloquence itself The wisdom of this 
aggressive course under the then peculiar environments of the State was 
doubted by some, but as usual Mr. Walsh's sagacity was vindicated by re- 
sults. The redemption of South Carolina from misrule became an accom- 
plished fact, and after sixteen long years of turmoil and anxiety the State was 
once more represented in Congress by her own sons. 

In 1880 Mr. Walsh's soundness of judgment again manifested itself in a sig- 
nal manner. Governor Colquitt was a candidate for re-election as governor of 
Georgia. A fight unprecedented in the political history of the State was made 
upon him, and in the most exciting convention ever held in Georgia, a power- 
ful and talented body of delegates steadily resisted his candidacy, iterating and 
reiterating that he was not the people's choice. Mr. Walsh took issue with 
this statement, and carried the majority of the convention with him, but so 
bitter was the contest and strong the opposition that no regular nomination 
was made Governor Colquitt was re-elected by an overwhelming majority, 
and Mr. Walsh's prescience most signally manifested. During this struggle 
some of the most influential members of the convention, representing the min- 
ority, approached Mr. Walsh and tendered him their support if he would con- 
sent to become a candidate for the nomination. But this offer was declined, as 
Mr. Walsh could not reconcile it with his duty to accept a nomination if ten- 
dered under such circumstances. He considered that it would be the betrayal 
of a trust and the desertion of a friend who had placed his cause in his keeping. 

In 1884 Mr. Walsh was one of the delegates from the State at large to the 
Chicago Convention. He was made the member of the National Democratic 
Executive Committee from Georgia, and had his advice been heeded the vie- 



46 History of Augusta. 



tory ol 1SS4 woiikl have been duplicated in 1888. With all his power he 
stro\H" at^ainst the atloption of the polic\- outlined in the Mills Hill as certain to 
result in disaster to the National DenuH'racy. l\li". Walsh believes in the 
polic}' of protection to American interests, lie thinks that the tarifl" should be 
so arranged as not only to afford the necessar\- revenue for the support of the 
government, but to protect, at the s.inie time, all le<;itimate American indus- 
tries. The labor ami the capital of the country, in \vhate\'er business engaged, 
whether in agriculture, manufactures ov mines, is entitletl to the protection of 
the go\'eriinient from foreii^n competition, not for monopoh' or for extortion, 
but to enable our people to recei\e fair ciMiipensation tor their capital, labor 
and products. 

Mr. Walsh h.is been an earnest supporter of all movements looking to bet- 
ter government for the Irish people. lie consiilcrs it the duty of American 
citizens to aiil in e\'ery way the people of Ireland, as well as the people of 
other countries who are strugi^ling tor their rights against the oppressimi and 
t\ ranny of numarchial governments. He believes that the agitation of Irish 
grievances, ciMistant ajipeals to the intelligent public opinion of the world, and 
moral su|)piMt and substantial aid from the Irish and their sj-mpathizers in the 
United States will result in the triumph of those principles in Ireland essential 
to the peace and happiness of her people. 

In August, i8()6. Mr. Walsh niairied Ann Isabella, daughter of Mr. and 
Mrs. John 1'^. McDonald, of ICdgefield District, S. C. She has been to him his 
best counselor and dearest friend. Whatever success he has achieved in life 
has been due kirgeU' to her who has blessed him with the ad\ice, the aftection 
ami the lo\e of a devoted wife. 

In appearance Mr. Walsh is a striking personage, thick set, well knit, firm 
in his bearing. He has a kind, friendly face, a clear, blue eye. and a counte- 
nance oi'Wn illuminated with a genial glow. In speaking, his voice is strong, 
his gestures emphatic, and his manner so earnest and impressive as to com- 
mand attention. He writes as he speaks, with dignit)', decision, candor and 
strength. His integrit\- is spotless; his friends, legion, as befits a character, 
which, uuiler e\ery test, luis [)ro\en the pure L;old of fitlelity and truth. 



M 



. irClH'.LL, ROIUCKT M., was born at Lynchburg, Ya., on April 12, 
'' 1845, and is a son of Robert M. and Mary Mitchell. His parents were 
of Scotch descent, their .incestiMS ha\ing emigrated from Scotland and settled 
in America in 1732. The youth and boyhood of the subject of our sketch 
were piissed at home. He was educated at the cit\' schools and Lynchburg 
Military College. 

When he left the school room the greatest war of modern times had just 
begun, and he immediatelx' cast his fortune with the people of his section, and 
on April 17, 1861, entered the Confederate service as lieutenant of Company 



BlOC.RAl'IlICAL. 47 



A, Eleventh Virginia Regiment, Kempers Brigade, Picketts Division, Army of 
Northern Virginia, and served in all the memorable engagements of this com- 
maiul until the surrender at Appomattox Court House, including the battles of 
Hull Run, First Manassas, Yorktown, Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Harrison 
Landing, Second Manassas, l^oonsboro, Antictam, Plymouth, Drnry's Bluff, 
Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and Five f\)rks. He was four times wounded in 
action, and dangerously so during Grant's left flank movement on Richmond. 
In the famous charge of Pickett's division on Cemetery Heights, at (Gettys- 
burg, Captain Mitchell commanded the left wing of the regiment, and while 
leading his command was wounded in the side and arm, after passing the his- 
toric rock fence where the storming column pierced the Federal center. Dur- 
ing this destructive battle to the valiant members of Pickett's division, he es- 
caped capture and was at the roll call of the division on the night of July 3, 
1863, when only 400 men of the 5,500 who entered the engagement answered. 
There are few, if any incidents in the war between the States which furnish a 
more inspiring and heroic picture than the daring charge of " Pickett's men" 
on this occasion, and their courage and valor adds one of the brightest pages 
to the military annals of our times. Mr. Mitchell shared all the dangers and 
hardships of this justl)' distinguished portion of the Confederate army, and 
was in command of the F.leventh Regiment until the battle of Five Forks. 

i'^or two years subsequent to the war, Mr. Mitchell engaged in mercantile 
pursuits, but in 1868 he moved to California, and until 1870 was engaged in 
mining operations near Yreka, Siskiyou county, lie then passed two years in 
Texas and Mexico, but in 1872 moved to Augusta, Ga., from Virginia, where 
in November of the following year he was married to Miss Lucie Reaney, the 
younger daughter of Mr. William Reaney, of McDuffie county. They have 
had four children — three daughters and a son — in order of birth as follows: 
Marie A., Hattie R., Fannie L., and Robert M., jr. 

For five years prior to 1883 Mr. Mitchell was connected with the staff of 
the Augusta CJironicle and Constitntiotialist, and in the field of jom-nalism dis- 
played unusual ability, but it was not the kind of work calculated to call forth 
the best resources of his nature. That opportunity came in the fall of 1883, 
when he conceived the project of building a railroad from Augusta to Sander- 
sonville. At this time he was [jractically without capital, and many doubted the 
feasibility of the plan. But with unlimited faith in the enterprise and backed 
almost solely by a strong determination to succeed, he went to work with all 
the energy of his nature. He enlisted capital, and in a short time organized the 
company which has since been known as the Augusta, Gibson and Sanders- 
ville Railroad Company. Work was soon commenced, and during the period 
of construction all of the financial management of the venture fell upon Mr. 
Mitchell, and so well did he succeed in this i)articular that when the road was 
completed and opened for business, in December, 1886, there was not a dol- 



48 History of Augusta. 

lar of debt against the company for its construction. This road has been in 
successful operation since ; has paid its way, and to-day its bonded indebted- 
ness per mile is perhaps smaller than any other road of the same length in the 
country. Mr. Mitchell was elected president in 1883, and from that time to 
the present, as canvasser for subscription to the original capital stock, as nego- 
tiator of its securities and as general manager of the road, he has shown such 
good business judgment and such excellent administrative ability that he has 
annually been elected to the presidency of the company. 

In 1886 he organized the Augusta, Edgefield, and Newbury Railroad 
Company, afterwards known as the Georgia and Carolina Midland. He was 
made president of the company, and under his administration some sixty-five 
miles of this line were graded, but the management and extension of roads in 
Georgia demanding his attention, he retired from the presidency. The road 
was then consolidated with the Charleston, Cincinnati and Chicago Railroad 
Company, Mr. Mitchell declining a most advantageous offer from the authori- 
ties of the consolidated roads. 

The completion and successful operation of the Augusta, Gibson and San- 
dersville road has but feebly demonstrated to Mr. Mitchell the feasibility 
and possibility of other lines which he has projected, using the present road as 
a basis. One of these projected lines extends through Eatonton, Monticello, 
and Griffin, to Birmingham, Alabama. The company also holds a charter for 
a road through Hawkinsville and Albany to St. Andrew's Bay, and the same 
privilege to construct a line from Augusta to Thomasville. 

For the purpose of developing and building up towns and selling land on 
the line of the Augusta, Gibson and Sandersville road, and the projected 
lines, the Central Georgia Land Company was formed in 1888, with an au- 
thorized capital of $1,000,000. Of this company Mr. Mitchell is president. 

As a railroad builder and manager, Mr. Mitchell has shown remarkable 
shrewdness and clear business foresight. He is well fitted by nature for the 
field in which, in a brief space of time he has made such rapid strides. He 
possesses in a large degree that energy, determination, and patience which 
does not understand defeat. He has the power to most forcibly impress upon 
others his own clearly defined views, while at the same time he begets their 
confidence and secures their co-operation. What he has already accomplished, 
important as it is to the prosperity of Augusta, is but a foretaste of what he 
hopes to achieve for the upbuilding of the city. 

Personally Mr. Mitchell is a genial, affable gentleman, easily makes and 
retains friends, is fond of social intercourse, but finds his chief pleasure within 
the family circle. He is a hard worker, enthusiastic in any project he under- 
takes, and when once embarked in an enterprise he follows it persistently un- 
til success is secured. In the material prosperity of Augusta he has already 
become an important factor, and in the years to come his career promises 
much of good to the State and city of his adoption. 



INDEX. 



ACADEMIES, endowment of, 304. 
prosperhy of, 313. 
Academy, Richmond, 319. 
Acts, oppressive, of the British parhament 

effect of, 57. 
Address of citizens to Governor Reynolds, 39 

et seq. . 

Agriculture, improvement in, upon the mtro- 

duction of slavery, 35. 
'• Algerine law," the, 174. 
Arsenal, United States, surrender of, 177 et 

seq. 
Arrows, manufacture of by the Indians, 22 
Article of association adopted by provincial 

congress, 70 
Articles of capitulation at surrender of Au- 
gusta, 123. 
Assembly of 1780, inconsistency of, 97. 
the recalcitrant, of 1772, 50. 
the self-styled, 93. 
" A State of the Province of Georgia," etc., 

25. 
Athletic Association, the, 294. 
Augusta, abandonment of, by the British, 80. 
absence of courts, at, 33 
act of incorporation of, 161. 
after the surrender of, 125. 
agriculture and trade of, in 1739, 27. 
amicable relations between the settlers of, 

and the Indians, 33. 
and Savannah Town, communication be- 
tween, 25. 
at the close of the eighteenth century, 148. 
attack upon, in 1779, 73. 
Bartram's description of, 56. 
birthplace of the cotton gin, 388. 
changes in charter of, 159. 
Augusta Chronicle, article in, on Longstreet's 

steamboat, 146. 
Augusta, city of, incorporation of the, 135. 
contradictory statements published con- 
cerning the progress of, 27. 
danger to the people of, through French 

influence with the Indians, 39. 
death rate of, 270. 
description of, about 1800, 148. 
designated as capital of the state, 82. 
detailed account of capture of, from the 
British, 113 et seq. 



Augusta, earliest accounts of, 25 et seq. 
early bar of, 224 et seq. 
effects of the Revolutionary war upon, 

152. 
enlargements of limits of, 151. 
establishment of by Oglethorpe, 25. 
evidences of prosperity of, at an early 

date, 29. 
first appearance of the drama in, 144. 
first church built in, 35. 
first fort built at, 30. 
first legislative meeting at, 83. 
first military body at, 30. 
first minister in, 35. 
first newspaper in, 137. 
honorable financial record of, 191. 
importance of as a cotton center, 431. 
intendants and mayors of, 136 (note), 191. 
legislation affecting, 132 et seq. 
letter of Oglethorpe from, 31. 
loss of, to the British, 74. 
maintenance of the garrison at, 32. _, 
Manufacturing Company, 417. 
memorandum of Stephens concerning, 32. 
named in honor of the princess, 25. 
natural advantages of the country at the 

date of settlement of, 30. 
occupation of, by the Bnti-sh, 102. 
only visit of Oglethorpe to, 31. 
" Petersburg and Savannah River Steam 
and Pole Boat Navigation Company of 
Northeastern Georgia, The," 474. 
plan of, 150 et seq. 
population of, in 1791, 137. 

in 1845, 174. 
prevalence of fevers at, 33. 
pseudo charter of, 157. 
removal of the government from, to 

Heard's fort, 98. 
representation of, in the Assembly of 

1751, 35. 
representatives of, in the Assembly of 

1772,50. 
selected for congress of Indian tribes, 44. 
settlement of, begun by Kennedy O'Brien, 

30. 
siege of, by Colonel Clarke, 104 et seq. 
statements and affidavits relating to, in 
1743, 27. 



50 



History of Augtsta. 



Augusta Steamboat Company, 475. 
town of, in 17G7, 49. 
trade of in 1790, 158. 
troops in the Mexican war, 175. 

in the Seminole war, 172. 
visited by an earthquake, 167. 
visit of La Fayette to, 170. 

Washington to, 140 et esq. 
water communication of, 441. 
wretched condition of fort at, in 1755, 
37. 

BALDWIN, Hon. Abraham, 137. 
Baker, Alfred, biography of, part II, 3. 
Bank of Augusta, condition of, in 1835, 335. 

extension of charter of, in 1845,337. 

incorporation of, 329. 

rules governing, 330. 

stockholders of, in 1835, 335. 

the National, 359. 
Citizens', of Augusta, 364. 
City Loan Association and Savings, 363. 
City Loan and Savings, of Augusta, 363. 
City, of Augusta, 364. 
City, the, 347. 
the Commercial, 361. 
Georgia Railroad, 359. 
Banking and Railroad Company, Georgia, 347. 
laws, penal, 264 et seq. 
system as regulated by law, 349, et seq. 
Bank. Manufacturers', of Augusta, 364. 
Mechanics', the, 344. 
Merchants' and Planters', 342. 
National Exchange, of Augusta, 359. 
Planters' Loan and Savings. 362. 
president's annual and semi-annual state- 
ments required of, 332. 
reports, annual, 333, et seq 
Savings, of Augusta, 363. 
Union, the, 346. 
Banks, ante helium 338. 

in Georgia, in 1867, 356. 
State, 359. 
Baptists in Augusta, 377. 
Bar, members of Augusta's early : 

Baldwin, Abraham, 224. 

Carnes, Thomas P. and Peter J., 228. 

Crawford, George W., 239. 

Crawford, William Harris, 226. 

Gumming, Colonel Henry H., 241. 

Forsyth, John, 236. 

Gould, William T., 241. 

Holt, William W., 243. 

Jenkins, Charles Jones, 239. 

Johnson, Herschel V., 244. 

King, John P., 235. 

Milledge, John, 224. 

Miller, Andrew J., 240. 

Schley, William, 242. 

Shly, John, 242 

Starnes, Ebenezer, 240. 

Telfair, Edward, 225. 

Walker, Freeman, 234. 



Bar, members of Augusta's early : 

Ware, Nicholas, 236. 

Watkins, Robert, 227. 

Wilde, Ricliard Henry, 237. 
Bar, the colonial, 210. 

Bart ram, William, impressions of, in 1773, 56. 
Bench and bar, members of the, in public af- 
fairs, 246. 
Bicycle Club, the, 294. 
Biography of : 

Baker, Alfred, part II, 3. 

Calvin, Hon. Martin V., part II, 16.— 

Campbell, Henry Fraser, part II, 4. 

Estes. Hon. Charles, part II, 1. 

Jones, Charles, Colcock, jr., part II, 
19. 

King, John Pendleton, part II, 30. 

McCoy, William E., part II, 24. 

Mitchell, R. M., part II, 46. 

Phinizy, Charles H., part II, 25. 

Sibley, Josiah, part II, 26. 

Thompson, Jesse, part II, 29. 

Walsh, Patrick, part II, 42. 

Young, William B., part II, 40. 
Blockade of Southern ports, 182. 
Board of Health, provided for by the Legis- 
lature, 265. 

work of, 266 et seq. 
Bowen, Commodore Oliver, death of, at Au- 
gusta, 165. 
Brick, manufacture of, 430. 
Broad street, rectification of lines of, 160. 
Brown, Thomas, affair of, 66. 

bitterness against, 155 et seq. 

inhumanity of, 110. 
Brownson, Dr. Nathan, elected governor, 99. 
Burnet, John, rascally conduct of, 126. 

C A DOG AN, George, representative, 35. 
Campbell, Dr., views upon the yellow 
fever, 263, et seq. 
Campbell, Henry Fraser, biography of, part 

II, 4. 
Calvin, Hon. Martin, biography of, part II, 16. 
Cana', Augusta, 174. 

completion of, 188. 
effects of enlargement of, 415. 
enlargement of, 413. 
history of, 401, et seq. 
litigation over the, 412. 
Carr's Fort and Kettle Creek, result of the bat- 
tles at, 79. 
Carr's Fort, the operations at and loss of. 75. 
Catholic church in Augusta, 380. 

Knights of America, the 298. 
Catholics, discrimination against, 368. 
Charter, surrender by the trustees of their, 36. 
Chemical works, the Georgia, 425. 
Cheering prospects of 1782, 101. 
Chief Justices John Glen, William Stephens, 
219; John Wereat, George Walton, 220; 
Henry Osborne, 221 ; Nathaniel Pendleton, 
223. 



Index. 



51 



Christian, or Church of the Disciples of Christ, 

383. 
Church, first built in Augusta, 35. 

of the Atonement, 372. 
Civil war, labors of the women in, 180. 
opening of, 177. 
troops called for, for the, 179. 
Clarke, Colonel, expedition of, to regain Au- 
gusta, 104. 

failure of, at Augusta, 107. 
Colonization, effect of, upon the Indians, 24. 

scheme of Oglethorpe and Percival, 153. 
Colored churches, 385. 
Commercial Club, the, 292. 
Commissions to sell city lots, 152, 157. 
Committee to appoint delegates to the national 
congress, 84. 

to send relief to Boston, 59. 
Communication between Savannah Town and 
Augusta, 25. 

of Douglass, accompanying address of 

citizens of Augusta, 41. 
Governor Reynolds to the council, 42. 
Confederate money, fluctuations of, 184. 

Survivors' Association, the, 297. 
Congress of Southern Indians at Augusta, in 

1763, 44. 
Congressional districts, division of State into, 

140. 
Convention, call for, to oppose British oppres- 
sion in 1774, 57. 
Constitution, federal, ratification of the, 138 et 

seq. 
Constitutional conventions of Georgia, 139. 
Convocation favoring independence, June 21, 

1775, 65. 
Copp, Rev. Jonathan, first minister in Au- 
gusta, 35. 

missionary, 369. 
Copper, use of by the Indians, 22. 
Cornwallis, Lord, circular letter of, 103. 

surrender of, 129. 
Council of Safety, ihe, 65. 
Counties, division of State into, 151. 
Cotton, 163, 145. 

center, the importance of Augusta as a, 

431. 
culture, rise of, 438. 
duties, British discrimination in, 393. 
early transportation of, 440. 
factories, establishment of, 399 et seq. 
factory, Bellville, 396. 

The Enterprise, 419. 
"futures," 434 et seq. 
gin. Eve's, 145. 

evidence that Whitney was the in- 
ventor of, 164. 
infringements upon, 389. 
legislative, action concerning, 388. 
Whitney's, 387 et seq. 
machinery, first in the State, 395. 

improvements and changes in, 
395. 



Cotton manufacture, cheapness of, in the 
South, 416. 

of, by Judge Shly, 395. 
of, in the South, 394. 
manufacturing companies, incorporation 

of, 397. 
market from 1790 to 1810, 392. 
" Cotton mills, the Augusta," organization of, 

175. 
Cotton mills, various, 420 et seq. 

product of Augusta and vicinity, 433. 
trade, growth of, 165. 
Court, general, 405. 

Court-house, first in Richmond county, 218. 
Court, mayor's, synopsis of history of the, 
247. 

of admiralty, 208. 

of Chancery, excellence of, under Sir 

James Wright, 199. 
of ordinary, 206. 
of vice-admiralty, 208. 
regulations and rules, details of, 197 et 

seq. 
roll of Judges of the city, 250. 
superior, letters patent of, 204. 
Courts, absence of records of early Richmond 
county, 218. 
appeals in, 209. 
common law, 200. 

comparison of colonial and state, 217. 
distribution of law, 204. 
established by the Provincial Congress, 

213. 
establishment of early, 193. 
special, 207. 

superior, under act of 1778, 214. 
under the State constitution of 1777, 213. 
■' Cracker," the, 439. 
Cremation, practiced by the Indians, 21. 
Creeks, depredations of, in 1767, 49. 

peaceful attitude of, 53. 
Crockett, eulogy upon, 172. 



DAVIE'S, Myrick, resolution upon the 
death of, 100. 
Davis, David, fidelity of, 128. 
Debts, release of, against Indians, 51. 
De Lacey, Roger, Indian trader, 30. 
Delegates to Congress in 1781, 99. 
Deplorable condition, resultant of the Civil 

war, 183 et seq. 
Deutscher Freundschaftsbund, the, 292. 

Schuetzen Club, the, 292. 
Development of Augusta under Mayor May, 

188. 
Dissensions, eflForts to create, in the body 

politic, 93. 
Distress following war of 1812, 169. 
Douglass, David, communication of, regarding 
address of citizens of Augusta, 41. 
representative, 35. 
Drama, the, 291. 



52 



History of Augusta. 



|j>CCLESlASTlCAL regulations established, 
lid 38. 

Education, free, benefactions to, 318. 
Educational board, county, 310. 
early, system, 301. 
fund, 310. 
Effects of the capture of Augusta upon the 

contending parties, 120. 
Egremont, Earl of, explanatory letter to, 47. 

meeting of Indians called by, through 
governors of provinces, 44. 
Election of January, 1780, 97. 

of January, 1783, 131. 
Ellis, Governor, 37. 
Emmet Club, the, 293. 
English laws adopted, 194. 
Episcopal Church, early days of the, in Au- 
gusta, 370. 
faith, preference shown, the, 309. 
Epitome of events, in 1800-08, 100; 1809-12, 
107; 1814, 108; 1815-21, 109; 1823-20, 
170; 1827-33, 171; 1830, 172; 1837-47, 
173; 1848-54, 175; 1855-00, 176; 1801- 
60, 177 et seq.; 1805, 180; 1800-71, 187, 
1872-83, 188 etseq. 
Estes, Hon. Charles, biography of, part II, 1. 
Eve, Joseph, letter of, concerning cotton gin, 

145. 
Excitement, incident upon, the opening of the 

Civil war, 179. 
Executive council, appointment of, 84. 

communication of, to General Lin- 
coln, 80 et seq. 
organization of, 85. 
powers of, 85. 
Exposition at Augusta, 189. 

FEDERAL forces, arrival of, in Augusta, 
180. 
Fee, Thomas, murder of Head Turkey by, 53 

et seq. 
Fees, chancery court officers', 198. 

chief Justice's, 202. 
Fertilizers, manufacture of, 420. 
Finances, condition of the State, 82. 
Flouring mills, the Augusta, 428. 
Fort James, 52. 

Fort Moore, preservation of, 25. 
(see Savannah Town). 
Forts, erection of, on Little and Savannah 

Rivers, 53. 
Freedmen's Bureau, the, 180. 
Free School, Augusta, 319. 
French jealousy, 39. 
Freshet of 1888, 189. 
Fulsom's Fort, contest at, 81. 
" Futures," cotton, 434 et seq. 

GALPHIN, Fort, capture of, by Colouel 
Lee, 113 et seq. 
Galphin, George, Indian agent, 53. 

influence and enterprise of, 55. 
Garrison, augmentation of, m 1741, 34. 



Georgia Gazette, report of public dinner iu the, 

131, 59. 
Gentleman's Driving Park Association and 

Augusta Jockey Club, the, 293. 
Georgia, additions to, secured by the treaty of 
Paris, 43. 

erection of into a body politic, 71. 

industries of, in 1700, 43. 

military strength of, in 1755, 37. 

on the verge of political death in 1780, 98. 

peace secured to, by establishment of 

fixed boundaries, 43. 
peaceful and prosperous condition of, in 

1701, 49. 
population of, in 1755, 37. 
Georgia Scenes, extract from, in relation to 

Springfield, 102. 
Georgia, secession of, 177. 

Society for Prevention of Cruelty to An- 
imals the, 295. 
vote of, cast in favor independence, 05. 
wealth and prosperity of, at begining of 
Civil war, 179. 
Government, difficulty in conducting the 
State, 82. 

form of, under the charter, 162. 
officers of the Indians, 20. 
oligarchical, of the State, 80. 
perfected organization of State in 1781, 

100. 
promulgation of imperfect plan of, 83 et 

seq. 
reversion of to the crown, 195. 
State, reorganization of, after the Civil 

war, 186 
the colonial, 190. 
Grand Army of the Republic, the, 298. 
Greene, General, operations of around Au- 
gusta, 115 et seq. 

relief of Georgia by, 129. 
successful operations of, 113. 
Gun Club, the Augusta, 293. 

HABERSHAM, Hon. James, advocacy of 
slavery by, 35, 
Habersham, Major, Joseph, arrest of, 72. 
Hale, Samuel, mayor for ten years, 171. 
Hall, Dr. Lyman, delegate to the Continental 
Congress, 03. 

elected governor, 131. 
Hammond, Majoi", comments of, upon the 
Savannah River as a means of transit, 440 
et seq. 

extract from statement concerning 
Savannah River, 403. 
Hastings, Captain Theophilus, 24. 
Hayne Circle, the, 297. 
Hebrew Church, 384. 
Hickman, Colonel H. H., enterprise of in the 

cotton industry, 424. 
History of Georgia, darkest epoch in the. 99. 
Holt, William H. 170. 
Horrors of the war, 102. 



Index. 



53 



Houghton Institute, 318. 

Houghton, John W., benefactions of, to, 318. 

Howley, Governor, proclamation of, 97. 

ICE Companies, the Jackson Street, 428. 
The Polar and Augusta, 428. 
Immigration retarded by Indian outbreaks, 55. 
Incidents of the Revolution, epitome of, 72. 
Incorporation, act of 1789, 158. 

of Augusta, act of, IGl. 
Indian arrow makers, 22. 

attack on Sherall's settlement, 52. 
attacks upon newly settled districts, 53. 
chiefs represented at the treaty of 1763, 

44. 
indebtedness to traders, accumulation of, 

50. 
medicine men, 20. 
peace congress of 1774, 55. 
pottery, 23. 

population of Georgia at date of Eng- 
lish colonization, 18. 
trade, transfer of, from Savannah Town to 

Augusta, 25. 
tribes occupying the lands ceded to the 

whites, 17 et seq. 
tribes, territorial domains of the, 19. 
warlike strength in 1708, 50. 
Indians, address to, by Captain Stuart, 45. 
agricultural methods of the, 19. 
cession of lands by, to cancel debts to 

traders, 50. 
congress of. at Augusta in 17G3, 44. 
cremation practiced by, 21. 
danger of hostility of, averted by Ogle- 
thorpe's wise policy, 33 et seq. 
disruption among, caused by French ma- 
lignancy, 39. 
effects of influx of foreigners among the, 

24. 
effects of French jealousy upon, 39. 
efforts of Oglethorpe to secure treaties 

with, 29. 
entire expartriation of the, from Georgia 

24. 
erection of tumili by the, 20. 
forbearance of the, 50. 
governmental divisions of, 20. 
habits and occupations of Southern, 18 et 

seq. 
introduction of small-pox among, by Ca- 
rolina traders, 34. 
kindliness of, towards the settlers, 33. 
mission of Oglethorpe to the Creek, 31 et 

seq. 
officers of government of the, 20. 
ornaments of the, 23. 
personal appearance and characteristics 

of the, 23. 
plantations of, 19. 
rules for traffic with the, 29. 
stone weapons and utensils of the, 22. 
towns of the, 19. 



Indians, treaty between the, and the Enghsh, 
November 10, 1763, 45. 

tribal connections of the, 17 et seq. 
unsatisfactory relations with, 143. 
use of copper by the, 22. 
wrath of, appeased by Governor Rey- 
nolds, 42. 
written and sculptured records of, 21. 
Indigo, cultivation of, 437. 
Industrial Home, the, 296. 
Inhumanities practiced under CornwaUis's 

sanction, 103. 
Institute, Houghton, 318. 
Insurance and Banking Company, Augusta, 

339. 
Intendants and mayors of Augusta, 191. 
title of, changed to -'mayors," 169. 

JACKSON'S legion, treason in, 127. 
Jones, Charles Colcock, jr., biography of, 
part II. 19. 
Jones, Dr. Noble Wymberley, 50. 
Judges, roll of superior court, 246. 
Judicial districts, division of the State into, 

217. 

the State formed into three, 228. 
establishment, the present, 218. 
establishment under the colonial govern- 
ment, 197. 
powers, assumption of, by provincial con- 
gress, 71. 
provisions of early charters, 193. 
Judiciary, meager information relative to the 

early, 192. 
Jurisdiction, settlement of vexatious question 

of, 172. 
Justice court, 206. 

powers of a, appointed by Governor 
Reynolds, 36. 

KENT, Lieutenant, complaint of, concern- 
ing the civil affairs of the government, 
34! 
Kettle Creek, engagement at, 77. 
King, John Pendleton, biography of, part II, 

30. 
Knights of Honor, the, 299. 
of Pythias, the, 299. 
of the Golden Rule, the, 299. 

LADIES' Memorial Association monument, 
180, et seq. 
La Fayette, visit of, to Augusta, 170. 
Lands, details of regulations for sale of, 52. 
Lawlessness and rapine, reign of, 90. 
Laws, obnoxious, 194. 

Lee. Colonel, brilliant exploit of, 113, et seq. 
Lee's surrender, effect of, in Augusta, 186. 
Legislation affecting Augusta, 132 et seq. 
paucity of, during the Revolution, 71. 
weak attempts at royal, 92. 
Legislative interest in religious matters after 
the Revolution, 371. 



54 



History ok Auousta. 



LefjjisIaUire, act of concerning railroads, of 
1827, 480; 18:51, -181; 18;53, 48'2, 504; 
1835, 48.{, r>0-\; \KU;, 484; 1837-40-43- 
50-68, 485; 1838 52, 504; 1804, 507; 
1870,511 ; 1873. 5(ifi. 

a(!t8 of, conconiiii^' tlic Angii.«ta Canal, 

401, ft st'(i. 
acts of the, necessitated hy tliodivii war, 
182 ot seq. 
Lexington, ellect of tlio news I'lom, upon 

Georgia, 05. 
" T-il)erty lioys," GO, 155. 
Lil)erty county, putnolisin of, 03. 
Limits, addition to city, lOi). 

extension of city, 170, 187. 
Lincoln, (ieneral, 81 et seq. 

censuicd by the Legislature, 97. 
Little, Williaiii, Indiiui ( ■onnnissioner, 30. 
Longstreet, William, "inventor of the steam- 
boat," 140. 

sleamboat o|)ciated by, 100. 
Louise Kmg Widow's Homo, the, 2!)5. 
Loyalty to the crown, expressions of, in the 
Ocori/ia (iazette, 5!) et se(i. 
to the home (Jovernnient, reu.sous for, 01. 
Lutheran ('liur(;h, 384. 

McCALL, Captain, statement of, relative 
to treason in Jackson's legion, 128. 
McCoy, William 10., liiograpliy of, part II, 24. 
Machine Works, the Augusta, 42'J. 

the rendieton, 428. 
Mcintosh, (ieneral, 80. 

dillerencea between and Walton, 04. 
review of case of, by tlu; House of 
Assembly, 00. 
Manufacturing ('ompany, the Augusta, 417. 
the John P. King, 421. 
the Perkins, 430. 
the Sibley, 420. 
Martm John, (fleeted governor in 1782, 101. 
Masonic fraternity, the, 298. 
Matthews Ooveinor, anecdote of, 107; death 

of in Augusta, 107. 
May, Robert II., 188. 

'' Mechanics, the Augusta Association of," 159. 
"Medical Academy of (ieor(i;ia," 252. 
Me<li(;al College, erection of, 254. 
" Medical College of Georgia, The," 254. 
" Me<Iical Institute of the State of Georgia, 

The," 254. 
Medical Society, the (irst, 252. 
"Medical Society of Augusta, Georgia, The," 

incorporation of, 252. 
Methodist ('hurch in Augusta, .37i>. 
Military allairs, state of in 1779, 90. 

forces, deplorable condition of, in 1779, 73. 
operations along the Savannah and Little 
Rivers, 79 et seq. 

resulting in (he loss of Augusta, 74. 
organization of by provincial congress, 71. 
precaution.s, 39. 
Ministerial As.sociation, the, 29C. 



Money, ridiculous depre(;iation of paper, 98. 
Monument.sConfederate, 180 et seq. 
Murder of Head Turkey, 54. 

NEWSPAPKUS, 
Aui/nstii. Chronicle, The, 278. 
Avgusta Oazetic, The, 290. 
Auijusla Herald, The, 279, 287. 
lianner of the tSouth, The, 289. 
Chronicle, The, the oldest copy ex- 
tant of, 281. 
Constitulionalisf, The, 280, 287. 
hvening Xeios, The, 280, 289. 
Free I'ress, The, 289. 
Oeoryia /iaptist. The, 289. 
Clvhe (did Lance, The, 290. 
Mirror, The, 287. 
Pacijkator, The, 289. 
/'ra</7-ess. The, 289. 
llepuhlic. The, 287. 
Sentinel, The, 289. 

Southern Field and Fireside, The, 287. 
Soiit/iern Medical and Surgical Jour- 
nal, The, 289. 
Slaters Rights Sentinel, The, 279, 280. 
Sunday Phoenix, The, 290. 
Newspaper editors and publishers: 
H((van, Joseph V., 279. 
IJunce, John, 287. 
DriscoU, Mr., 279. 
Hobley, William J., 279, 287. 
Jones, James W., 279. 
Longstreet, Judge, 278. 
McWhorter, John G.. 288. 
Moore, Henry, 280. 
Morse. N. S., 280. 
Pcndtcrton, A. II., 279. 
Kandali, James R., 281, 287. 
Smith, John K., 278. 
Smythe, Colonel James M., 280, 287. 
Stockton, John L. 290. 
Stovall, Pleasant A., 281. 
Thom|)son, Major, 288. 
Walsh, lion. Patrick, 281, 289. 
Weigle, John M. 289. 
White, Rev. W. J., 289. 
Wright, General Ambrose R., 281. 
Wright, 11. Gregg, 281. 
Wright, Prof. R. R., 289. 
(irst, in Augusta, 137. 

O'HRIKN, Kennedy, statement of, 29. 
settlement of Augusta begun bv, 30. 
Odd Fellows, the, 299. 

(Jgletliorpe, conciliatory intervention of, be- 
tween Carolina traders and the Indians, 34. 
ellbrts of, to establish treaties with the 

Indians, 29. 
establishment of the town of Augusta by, 

25. 
influence of with the Indians, 33. 
letter of, from Augusta, 31. 
measures of, 150. 



Index. 



55 



Oglethorpe, mission of, to tlie Creek Indians, 
31 et seq. 
mission to the Creek Indians, Spalding's 

comments upon, 32. 
only visit of, to Augusta, 31. 
planting of the colony of Georgia by, 17. 
recommendation of, in favor of O'Brien, 
30. 
Ornaments of the Indians, 23. 
Orphan Asylum, the Augusta, 296. 

PACK-IIOKSES and flat-boats, 430. 
parishes, division of the province into, 
etc., in 1758, 37. 
Patriotism of the people, 1 1 0. 
Peace treaty with the Indians in 1774, 5.5. 
Penalty for counterfeiting, in rules of Bank of 

Augusta, 332. 
Personal daring, instances of, 80. 
Phini/.y, Charles IT., biograi)hy of, part II, 2.5. 
Phini/.y, John, reminiscent tostunony of._ 173. 
Physicians, early, in Richmond county, 2.51. 
Physicians, eminent: 

Antony, Dr. Milton, 271. 
Carter, Dr. John, 272. 
Cunningham, Dr. Alexander, 272. 
Dugas, Dr. Louis Alexander, 273. 
Eve, Dr, Joseph Adams, 270. 
Fendall, Dr. .Jo.seph II. M., 272. 
Ford, Dr. Lewis Saussure, 275. 
Garvin Dr. Ignatius P., 273. 
Newton, Dr. George M., 273. 
Watkins, Dr. Auder.son, 272. 
Physicians, leading, followed by sons and rel- 
atives in the profession, 277. 
State Board of, 253. 
Pickens, General, ordered to Augusta, 113. 
Political sentiments, serious divisions in, 59. 
Pope, General, rule of, 187. 
Pottery made by the Indians, 23 
Presbyterian Church in Autrusta, 372 et seq. 
Presidential tours, contrast between, 143. 
Priber, Christian, attempt of, to prejudice the 

Cherokees against the English, 34. 
Proclamation announcing the sale of ceded 

lands, 51. 
Property, .sequestration of, 82. 
Protest, a, and a rejoinder, 61. 

of the inhabitants of St. Paul parish 
against the resolutions of August 10, 
60. 
" Protestant Episcopal Society of the county 

of Richmond," incorporation of, 371. 
Provincial congress, article of association 
by, 70. 

at Savannah, 67. 

/QUAKERS, the, .52. 



R 



AILROAD building, interest in, 172. 

Company, Georgia, 482. 
the Augusta and Knoxville, 506. 



Railroad, the Augusta and Summerville, 510.^ 
the Augusta and Port Royal, .508. 
the Charlotte, Columbia and Augusta, 507. 
the Augusta, Gibson and Sandersville, 

506. 
the Central, 503 et seq. 
the first, 480. 
the first in America, 171. 
the Georgia, construction and equipment 

of, 485 et seq. 
the Georgia, present status of, 502. 
the Georgia, statistics of, from 1837 to 
1889, 480 et seq. 
Railroads, beginning of, 480. 
branch, 483. 
projected, 512. 
" Rangers," 37. 

Reconstruction, congressional, 187. 
Records, written and sculptured, of the Indi- 
ans, 21. 
Red Men, Independent Order of, 299. 
Reid Chief Justice, incidents in the life of, 

229 et seq. 
Reid Robert Raymond, 170. 
Religious freedom, provisions for, 367. 

services, first stated, 369. 
Resolutions of August 10, 1774, expressing 
the sentiment of Georgia, 57 et seq. 

of August 10, criticisms of and protest 

against the, 59. 
of the provincial congress, 67 et seq. 
Revolutionary measures, progress of, 71. 

movement, i)rogress of the, 63. 
Revolt, lack of cause for, by Georgia, 64. 
Reynolds, Captain John, appointed Governor, 

30. 
Reynolds, Governor John, address of the citi- 
zens of Augusta to, in 1756, 39 et seq. 

communication of, to the coun- 
cil, 42. 
gifts to the Indians by, 36. 
miliLiiry recominendations of,'37. 
Richmoinl Academy, origin of, 157. 
Richmond county, a natural manufacturing 
center, 398. 

population of, 148. 

Poultry and Pet Stock Association, 
The, 294. 
Rivalry between Augusta and Savannah, 159. 
Riverside Mill", the, 421. 
Roll of chief justice.s, superior court judges, 

and .solicitors-general, 240. 
Royal sentiment, strength of, 155. 
Royalists, expulsion of, 156. 

flight of, 88. 
Rum, prohibition of, 194. 

sale of, prohibited, 49. 
St. John's parish, action of, 62. 
' St. Paul, the parish of, 368. 
' St. Paul's church, (note), 35. 
erection of, 371, 
St. Valentine Society, the, 292. 
I Sanitary measures, early, 252. 



56 



History of Augusta. 



Savannah and Augusta Steamboat Company, 

474. 
Savannah, capture of, by the British, 89. 

condition of the Slate upon the fall of, 72. 
operations of General Wayne around, 129. 
powder magazine, seizure of, 65. 
provincial congress at, 67. 
surrender and evacuation of, 130. 
Savannah River, act for improvement of in 
1786, 446. 

act of 1802 concerning the, 447. 
act of 1809 concerning the, 447. 
act of 1812 concerning the, 447. 
act of 1816 regarding the, 466. 
act of 1829 concerning the, 454. 
act to encourage use of steam upon 

the, 469. 
appropriations for, in 1817, 448. 
as a medium of transport, 440. 
Association, 459. 
bridge over the, at Augusta, 477 et 

seq. 
combined effort of South Carolina 

and Georgia to improve the, 

448. 
commissions appointed in 1816 to I 

view obstructions in, 448. 
disastrous overflow of, 174. 
dispute over, as a boundry line, 443 

et seq. 
efforts to improve in 1799, 446. 
efforts to obtain national aid, 452. 
extract from statement of Mayor 

Hammond in relation to, 463. 
extract from the Chronicle's report 

of a trip down the, 463. 
failure of Georgia and South Caro- 
lina to combine for improvement 

of, 453. 
frozen over, 171. 
location and object of establishment 

of, 24. 
Georgia's ownership of, 445. 
history of Longstreet's steamboat 

upon the, 466 et seq. 
legislation by South Carolina con- 
cerning 454. 
legislative action regarding during 

1820-23, 449. 
meeting to discuss improvement of 

the, 456. 
memorial to congress concerning the, 

461. 
methods of transportation upon the, 

465. 
neglect of as a waterway, 442. 
post helium ideas concerning the, 

455. 
results of appropriations made for, 

451. 
the Chronicle's plan of improvement 

of, the, 455. 
water-power of, 442. 



Savannah Town and Augusta, communication 
between, 25. 

location and object of establishment 

of, 24. 
loss of prestige of, upon settlement 

of Augusta, 25. 
rapid growth of trade at, 24. 
transfer of Indians from, to Augusta, 
25. 
Savannah Valley, convention of people of, 458. 
Savings Bank, Augusta, 338. 
Savings Institution, the Augusta. 362. 
Scholastic year, 327. 
School act of 1843, 312. 
of 1852, 313. 
of 1858, 317. 
age, change of, in 1859, 313. 
appropriations, necessity for, 313. 
Colored High, 325. 
fund, augmentation of in 1858, 313. 
funds, report of Governor Jenkins upon, 
321. 

resolutions regulating use of, 307. 
laws digested into a code in 1800, 315. 
" old field," Judge Longstreet's anecdote 

of, 314. 
purposes, appropriation of bank divi- 
dends for, 304. 
reports, senators required to make, 305. 
statistics, 327. 

system, change in, in 1840, 312. 
system, disruption of, by Civil War, 317. 
system, early general, 303. 
system in 1828, 308. 
system, the poor-, 304. 
teachers' certificates, method of procuring, 

325. 
teachers, method of selection of, 325. 
Tubman High, 325. 

appropriations for, 303. i 

Augusta public, laws regulating, 324. 
colored, enactments concerning, 321. 
division of, 327. 
examinations in, 326. 
Governor McDonald upon the, 312. 
Governor Scliley upon the, 310. 
house committee report upon, 305. 
in 1830, 310. 
in 1839, 311. 
poor-. 307. 

poor-, and academies, relieved of 

university supervision, 315. 
poor-, clerk of the court of ordinary 

made sole trustee of, 308. 
poor-, support of, 310. 
private, 328. 
provisions for, in constitution of 1868, 

323. 
regulations governing admission of pupils 
to, 320 
Seminole war, Augusta troops in, 172. 
Senatus Academicus, the. 302. 
Settlements increase of, 52. 



Index. 



57 



Sheltering Arms, the, 296. 

Sherman, preparations to repel, 185. 

Shly, John, introduction of cotton manufacture 
by, 395. 

invention of, for cleaning cotton, 397. 

Sibley, Josiah, biography of, part II, 26. 

Silver Bluff, home of George G-alphin, 55. 

Slaves, introduction of from Carolina, 34. 

Slavery, advocacy of, by Whitefield and. Hab- 
ersham, 35. 

Societies, colored, 300. 

Solicitors-general, roll of, 246. 

Southern Medical and Surgical Journal^ TJie, 
254, 271. 

SpaL'ing's comments upon Oglethorpe's mis- 
sion to the Creek Indians, 32. 

Stamp act, the, in Augusta, 49. 

" Steamboat Company of Georgia," 470 et seq. 

Steamboat, Longstreet's invention of the, 146 
et seq. 

article in Augusta Chronicle on Long- 
street's, 146. 
evolution of, 137. 

Steamboats, list of, 475. 

Stephens, Colonel William, memorandum of, 
32. 

Stokes, Chief Justice, 201. 
report of, 154. 

Stone weapons and tools of the Indians, 22. 

Stuart Captain, address of, to the Indians, 45. 
superintendent of Indian affairs, 44. 

Stuart Hon. John, 50. 

Summary of epochs, 190. 

^pAX, colonial, 154. 

JL Telfair, Edward, elected governor, 140. 
Temperance orders, 300. 
Thanksgiving, pubUc, 140. 
Theater Company, Augusta, 292. 

first, 291. 
" Thespian Society and Library Company of 

Augusta, The," 291. 
Thompson, Jesse, biography of, part II. 29. 
Thweatt, Peterson, comptroller, educational 

report of, 321. 
Tobacco, 144. 

cultivation of, 437. 
Toleration accorded to dissenting religious 

bodies, 39. 
Tomo-chi-chi, Indian chief, 17, 29. 
Traffic, rules for, witli the Indians, 29. 
Transportation, early, 436. 
Travelers' Protective Association, the, 298. 
Treaty of November 10, 1763, between the 

Indians and English, articles of, 45 et. seq. 
Tumili, erection of by the Indians, 20. 

UNION STEAMBOAT COMPANY, 474. 
Unitarian church, 385. 
University, State, 137. 

T/'OTERS, first registration of, 176. 



WALKER, FREEMAN, 169. 
Walton, George, bitterness of towards 
General Mcintosh, 95. 

opinion of, regarding Augusta, 132. 
Ware, Nicholas, 169. 
Waterworks, introduction of, 176. 
Wayne, General Anthony, Savannah, occu- 
pied by, 130. 

Savannah, watched by, 129. 
Wereat, President, proclamation of, 92. 
Whitefield, Rev. George, advocacy of slavery 

by, 35. 
Whitney, Eli, 387. 

ingratitude of the South towards, 391. 

inventor of the cotton gin, 163 et seq. 

William.son, General, traitorous conduct of, 

102. 
Williamson, Lieutenant-Colonel, investment 

of Augusta by, HI et seq. 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union, the, 

296. 
Woman's Exchange, the, 296. 
Wright, Governor, admission of, of his inabil- 
ity to suppress the indications of revolt, 62. 
assurance ot, to Lords Commissioners, 

48 et seq. 
decisive stand taken by, with the In- 
dians, 54. 
expression of, concerning the rebel- 
lion, 71. 
fidelity of, to the Crown, 64. 
flight of, 72. 
letters of, upon the siege of Augusta, 

108. 
population of Georgia at inauguration 

of, 43. 
proclamation of, in 1774, 57. 
promulgation of trade regulations by, 

48. 
report of, upon the condition of the 

country, 89. 
successful policy of, 49. 
Wright, Sir James, arrest of, 72 . 
third governor of Georgia, 32. 
Writ of error, form of, 209. 

" "\rAZOO Fresh," the, 160, 174. 

X Yellow Fever, Dr. Ramsay's opinion 
concerning the, 257. 

first epidemic of, 255. 

fundamental principles regarding the, 

263. 
report of committee appointed to in- 
quire into the, 255 et seq. 
reports concerning, from various cit- 
ies, 258 et seq. 
resolutions of the Augusta Medical 

Society regarding the, 265. 
visitation of. in 1854, 261. 
Young Men's Christian As.sociation, the, 

296. 
Young, William B., biography of, part II, 
40. 



